Fate Shirou
by Shintouyu
Summary: Shirou, you idiot!
1. Heroic Spirit Shirou

**Fate Shirou**

Chapter One

_Hey, Throne of Heroes, We Need Spirits With An Attitude!_

_[HEROIC SPIRIT SHIROU]_

* * *

**Forewarning: **_This is a crack-fic for the sake of being a crack-fic. I know little about the Fate/Stay Night, all of it being second-hand information at best, and even less about the Nasuverse. So before anybody tears me to shred about canon, know that I already threw out all pretenses of understanding anything when writing this crack-fic._

_And so, here we go, welcome to Fate Shirou._

* * *

The Holy Grail War; a large-scale ritual created by the old magus family of the Tohsaka's, the Einzbern's, and the Makiri's, to imitate, _no_, to recreate the mystical True Third Magic: Heaven's Feel; the Materialization of the Soul.

The Holy Grail - within its mighty powers and enormous capacity - would select seven worthy magi to call forth seven Heroic Spirits to fight in this war and the winner - one Master and one Servant - would then be granted any wish that they so desired.

This was the identity of the Holy Grail War and it has taken place in Fuyuki City for all accounts.

Yet four wars have been fought and nearly two-hundred years have passed by with naught a winner to their names. And now the 5th Holy Grail War is here, occurring only a mere ten years after the previous ritual.

Surely, this new war would be unlike any other before it...

[...]

_In my name, I summon thee..._

[...]

Illyasviel von Einzbern, a young lady who looked more like a young girl, was chosen to be the Einzbern Representative for the 5th Holy Grail War.

Long white creamy hair, pinkish red eyes with long eyelashes, fair light skin and a petite body, her clothing were generally purple with golden trims and also some white here and there to break the monotony; she truly did look too young to have been chosen as a Master for this war. But to judge based on her appearances would be wrong; a deception to the eyes.

As childish as she looked and acted, there was a indeed darkness within her that shouted of hatred and whispered of inferiority.

To her, this war was only a step to revenge, to find the child that her father had abandoned her for nearly ten years ago.

And so, though she had not a wish for the Grail, she had a purpose for participating in this war.

In this room, which resembled a chapel, inside the Einzbern Castle in Germany, Illyasviel was to summon the great hero of Greek Mythology, Heracles, as her Servant. Whether it was Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Assassin, or Berserker, it did not matter, whatever Class the Greek Hero would be called upon was an after-thought. He was simply that powerful of a hero.

In the center of her magic circle, there lied an item which was tied to the ancient hero of Greece, a giant slab of stone that came from a pillar of a temple that once worshiped him.

Taking a deep breath, Illyasviel begins her chant whilst filling the magic circle with her prana.

It glows in a bright red as power flows into it.

And as her chant ends, an explosion bursts forth from the magic circle and smoke blocks her view. Within, she can see the shadow of a person. Muscular and tall, it was certainly a man, but she was expecting someone larger.

When the dusty smoke clears away, Illyasviel gets an eyeful of her Servant.

Roughly six-foot tall, he had dark gray skin that was ladled with white scars, as though light was trying to escape from him, all around his bare upper arms and he wore dark black tight armor. His downtrodden dark gray hair looked scraggly and worn and the man's expression was a firm stoic. And his eyes, which barely peeked through his fallen bangs, were a deep shade of gray.

"Come, Heracles," the young Master chirps and walks away, confident in her success, "We need to prepare to greet my big brother~!"

[...]

A flipped coin lands on the table with the side of the 'head' facing up, "Well, then, let's get this show on the road~" a grinning teenage girl says.

Long dark black hair that could be called raven blue and orange-red eyes; this girl is wearing a white shirt with black frill trims under a dark cobalt blue furred-jacket along with a navy blue short shorts and thigh-high brown boots.

She gets off of her chair, brushes aside her hair, and is now looking at the red magic circle lying on the ground before her.

"Ah, I wonder what kind of Heroic Spirit I'll summon," she cheerfully muses to herself, "I hope it's one that was killed by a woman. That way he would know just how scary a woman can be~"

Misaya Reiroukan, the heir to a lesser family of magi, is a prodigy magus and has only one other formal rival in this generation. But even then, this girl was too care-free; caring very little about being a 'proper magi.'

Yet, somehow, this was the person who was chosen to be a Master.

She has no desire to advance herself in magecraft nor any wishes for the Grail. No, the only thing she wanted was to participate in the war for the sake of participating in it. Such a rare opportunity, it was something that she would definitely have involved herself in; Master or not.

"Ah, I bet all those other magi are so jealous of me~"

There was nothing in her circle, no specific material catalyst to summon a hero; as always Misaya enjoyed testing her luck.

She chants several verses and then her Servant appears within the magic circle a moment after.

It was a tall man with tanned skin and short white hair, his eyes being a light gray. He was dressed in tight black armor that emphasized his muscles.

"Servant Lancer at your service," the man says with a light bow, "Are you my Master?"

Misaya only giggles, "Tell me, Lancer... were you killed by a woman?" she asks with a sneer.

[...]

The Tohsaka Manor, a residence in Fuyuki City owned by the Tohsaka Family, was plain yet regal in the inside but looked like a haunted house on the outside. Right now, it was all but empty, save for one individual: Rin Tohsaka, the current head of the family.

She is a prodigy magus, formally rivaled by only one infuriating slacker but unofficially rivals with another proud individual. She acts prim and proper in public and is quite popular too.

She has her long black hair done in twin-tails tied by black ribbons and her eyes are an aqua color. Her casual clothing were usually a red sweater, black skirt, black thigh-high stockings, and brown shoes; such were the clothing that she is wearing right now.

And tonight, she is planning to summon her Servant.

Rin has no wishes of her own for the Grail, though if she were to have one then it would be to see the Akashic Records. What drives her instead is the duty of being the Tohsaka Head, to finally win the Holy Grail War in the name of the Tohsaka Family, but more importantly it also for the sake of her deceased father that lost his life in the previous war ten years prior.

Down in the basement, the young head has done everything in her power to ensure that she would summon the strongest Servant of them all, the Saber Class, and everything should be proceeding as she had planned.

The moment of truth comes and pass, and there her summoned Servant did not appear.

"Did I fail?" she could not believe it. Such a thing, it could not even be called a joke.

But the girl only had a moment to wallow in her despair.

Suddenly loud explosions ring out; it is the shattering clatter of glass, the tear of fabric, and the crashing and snapping of wood coming from the floors above. This disturbance immediately catches her attention.

Running up the stairs to the ground floor and maneuvering through several rooms, Rin walks into her living room to see that her house is wrecked and ruined.

In one particular spot where the rubble is gathered together, there was a man in red sitting comfortably on the fallen debris.

Tall in height, with short white hair that was slicked back, tanned skin, and steely-gray eyes. He is dressed in black armor with a red coat that was seemingly cut in-half at the waist.

The relaxed man met the girl's tensed inspecting gaze.

"I am Servant Archer, are you my Master?"

Rin barely manages to suppress a tired groan. For all her troubles she had summoned an Archer and not the Saber!

[...]

Born from a middle-class magi family, Manaka Sajyou was, unexpectedly, chosen to become a participant and her father had immediately pushed her to prepare for the upcoming 5th Holy Grail War.

Her family procured a house in Fuyuki City and this is where the teenage girl currently lives alone now.

Neck-length light blond hair and clear blue eyes; she is dressed in the school girl uniform of Homurahara Academy and could be considered a beauty. Though she has only attended the school for a short time, she is well known and admired by the student body.

A Command Seal, the mark of a Master, had appeared on her hand nearly three weeks ago, however, it was only now that the girl felt like summoning her Servant.

Manaka lazily chants her incantations and yet her results are a resounding success nonetheless.

From the clearing smoke stood the prone form of her Servant.

He was a man wrapped with a black cloak and the hood over his head; his face was shrouded in the darkness of the unlit living room.

Though, to her, the room was as bright as day and she could see the man's handsomely rugged face, his dull gray eyes, the white fringes of his hair, and his tanned skin, despite the cover of his obscuring hood.

"...I am Servant Assassin," he introduces himself in a coldly smooth voice that only makes Manaka's heart flutter even more than before.

"Ah, you're an assassin?" she cheerfully chimes, "Let's go and kill some people then~!"

[...]

Luviagelita Edelfelt considers herself the only one true rival to Rin Tohsaka and had a tendency to clash heads with the prodigy. When she discovered that both she and her rival were chosen to be Masters in the 5th Holy Grail War, well, she was absolutely excited in being given the chance to one-up the other girl in something outside of academia.

Long blond hair rolled into ringlets and brown eyes, the Head of the Edelfelt Family prefers to wear blue and white as her color as opposed to Rin's red and black. At the moment, she has two blue ruffles and ribbons fashioned onto her head and is wearing an elegant blue and white dress.

Excited at the prospect of challenging Rin Tohsaka at something new, the girl quickly summons her Servant.

The room is filled with a light cover of smoke. With a dainty cough, Luviagelita tries to act tall and proud, befitting that of a noble, as she patiently waits for the smoke to clear away.

Standing there is a woman dressed in blue.

Medium-length white hair and lightly tanned skin with gray eyes, the Servant's clothing were rather simple looking, if not somewhat civilian in nature. If this woman was placed in a crowd of people then she would fit right in.

"I have been summoned as Servant Caster," she tilts her head, "Are you my Master?"

The ringlet-haired girl proudly laughs, "I am Luviagelita Edelfelt, and yes, I am your Master~!"

With an examining eye, Luviagelita grins, '_Caster? Then that must mean that I'm a better mage than Tohsaka!_'

[...]

An old man, a two centuries old parasite that has lived for far longer than his original life-span, watches as his adopted granddaughter attempts her summoning.

The life of Sakura Matou is that of a tragic story best left unsaid.

With violet hair and violet eyes that were not her original birth colors, this girl has been chosen to be the Matou Representative of the 5th Holy Grail War.

Sakura did not want to be a part of this family nor take a role in this war, yet she had to. That man, her grandfather, Zouken Matou, was a monster and so she had to summon a Servant under his watchful eyes; she could not disobey him nor could she refuse him.

Quietly, almost without emotions, she summons her Servant.

The person that appears in the magic circle is a fairly beautiful woman, exotic looking one could say. Tall with long white hair, orange-tanned skin, and dark gray eyes; she is dressed in black armor and purple garbs.

A chuckle comes from Zouken afar, "You've summon something interesting I hope, Sakura," the girl could only tense and wonder why the old thing was speaking to her at all, "That is not Medusa."

Sakura could only blink. She had failed to summon Medusa?

A cold shiver runs down her spines, it never did anyone well to disappoint the Head of the Matou Family.

It is then that the the woman speaks, "I am Servant Rider," she steps forward, blocking Zouken's view, "And I shall protect you during this war, my Master."

There was a small moment of silence.

"Ah, of course, you're a Heroic Spirit nonetheless," Zouken cackles, "Make sure you win, Sakura. Failure won't be tolerated," he states before leaving this dark basement with the resounding taps of his cane.

When the last noise disappears, Sakura breaths a sigh of relief; for now, she is safe and unharmed.

[...]

_Trace On!_

[...]

Shirou Emiya is an orphan boy survivor of a devastating tragedy, the Great Fuyuki Fire, that ruined and destroyed a certain area of Fuyuki City and caused hundreds of death in its wake nearly ten years ago.

He is an average teenage boy with but one terrible secret: he is a magi.

And not a very good one at that.

Reddish hair and golden-brown eyes, the boy is kind and polite; a very pleasant person to be around. He prefers to referred to by his first name and his one goal in life is to become an 'Ally of Justice,' or a 'Hero' in other words. Though, he has not made much progress on that front.

"Don't worry about it, I'll have it fixed up in no time."

Still, Shirou was a helpful person. One could say that he almost never said 'no' when a favor was asked of him.

At the moment, he has just volunteered his services to repair all the broken equipments around the school. Something that will no doubt continue long into the night.

"Sorry for troubling you again, Shirou," the other person, a male classmate, apologizes. This cool looking and glasses-wearing boy is Issei Ryuudou, student body president of Homurahara Academy, and also best friend of Shirou Emiya.

"Nah, it's fine. The sooner the better, right? See you later, Issei," the red-haired teen waves off.

Giving a wry smile, the student boy president excuses himself, "Yeah, see you later, Shirou."

When the other boy was out of sight, Shirou begins his work, "Well, let's get started," and starts working his magic, literally, to fix the machines.

To speak of, the young inept magus only had three skills to his name: Reinforcement, Projection, and Structural Grasping.

Reinforcement was exactly as its name suggested: magecraft to reinforce the property of something. Projection was the materialization of objects through the caster's imagination formed by their prana; copies that would cease to exist after a matter of hours if not minutes. And Structural Grasping was the analyzing of objects, like seeing a blueprint.

With Structural Grasping, Shirou Emiya did not have a difficult time figuring out what was wrong with the broken equipments and also knew how to fix them as well. Knowledge of his ability to repair such machinery was quite known at Homurahara Academy and he even earned the affectionate nickname of 'The Handyman of Homurahara' or 'The Fake/Student Janitor' due to his kindness.

Wiping the sweat off his brows, it was of course far into the night when he was finally finished with the request.

Walking to the gated entrance of the school with his bag slung on his shoulder, Shirou enjoys the cool night breeze.

That is until he hears the sound of metal clashing against one another and the yelling of some unknown voices.

He is curious as to what the repeating noises are and looks around to find the source. However he is greeted by something totally unexpected: a man clad in black wielding two spears running full speed whilst shouting out his name.

"SHIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOO OOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

[...]

Thirty minutes earlier, Rin Tohsaka and Archer were prowling the school ground looking for other Masters. Though she believed that Luviagelita Edelfelt would be coming soon to seek an honorable duel to show off Servant. And if, _if_, she was wrong about that, then she would simply move on somewhere else; perhaps stand upon the roof of the tallest building in Fuyuki City and allow Archer familiarize himself with the layout of the land.

However, those were the least of her concerns at the moment.

The Tohsaka Head wasn't particularly pleased to know that her Servant was somehow suffering from amnesia of some sorts and didn't like the implication that she had somehow botched up her summoning ritual twice; first for failing to get the Saber Class and second for being the cause of his memory loss.

Worst yet, she was not happy that she could not figure out who her enigmatic Servant was suppose to be. His features and clothing did not strike her as being recognizable of any long gone age; instead it was a strange mixture of the past and present. So she was not sure who his identity was or what kind of legend he had created that would place him in the Archer Class.

Speaking of, Archer did not even carry a bow with him, he was weaponless, and didn't even seem to realize or care.

Was this another sign that she messed up the summoning? No, it couldn't be, Rin couldn't believe that she would fail that badly; surely Archer had some tricks up his sleeves?

Whatever the case, the red-and-black Servant had aura of cool confidence about him. It was something that Rin Tohsaka was not willing to question; at least, not after the man had smoothly complimented her as 'the strongest Master' therefore making him 'the strongest Servant.'

For now, she was willing to let him slide without a deep interrogation and followed his lead.

[...]

Meanwhile, at the same time, Misaya Reiroukan and her Lancer were walking down the street.

After answering truthfully that, yes, he was killed by a woman and could even be said to have been bullied by women in his entire life, Lancer's Master had gleefully smiled and then simply ordered him to follow her.

She is humming a simple nameless tune as she strolls down the lane with her hands in her jacket pockets.

"Master, may I ask where we're going in such a hurry? Or perhaps what your name even is?"

"Ah, you want to know my name? Aren't I a bit too young for you? I didn't know you were such a lecher, Lancer. Perhaps that's why you died at the hands of woman~?"

"It's a matter of formality, Master," he says unbothered.

"Then tell me your real name, Lancer."

"No, that is a compromise of security. I cannot, Master."

"Then you can simply continue to call me 'Master,'" she continues to her own beat, "As for where we're going, it's Homurahara Academy. We're going to show you off to a friend of mines~"

"Homurahara Academy..." he mutters, '_That sounds familiar, why?_'

When the Servant of the Spear was summoned, there were bits and pieces of his memory that did not seem to have pull through completely and so his mind was in a slight disorderly blur. Lancer remembers his name, the beginnings of his life, how to fight, and how he died and by whom, but he really couldn't remember the other parts of his life; such as why he knew how to fight or what he died fighting for.

It was a strange feeling to be so aware and yet so unaware about himself, "Wait, you're going to make me meet a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, she's also a Master, I'm sure she's patrolling the school right now. Was always a bit tight like that," Misaya turns around to look at him, "Make sure you do your best to impress her, Lancer~"

Lancer blinks, "You're making me fight this early in the war? I suggest we scout out the enemy first, Master; learn their strengths and their weaknesses before we fight them."

"You don't sound confident at all, Lancer."

"I'm just being cautious, Master. We know nothing about the enemy, but more importantly we know nothing about each other; I don't know what you can do and you don't know what I can do. Our compatibility in battle can easily turn the tide for or against us. I'd rather not fight a battle if I am unsure of your safety, Master."

"Oh? You almost sound really worried about me~"

Lancer answers without delay, "Because I am. I don't like seeing others get hurt for my sake, Master."

There was only a half-second pause in Misaya's step.

"I see... so you're that kind of Heroic Spirit."

The man furrows a brow, "What's that suppose to mean, Master?" he didn't quite like the tone this time.

"It's nothing," she casually waves off, "Anyways we're here."

Before the duo, many yards away, there was another short and tall pair prowling the night grounds. Or they previously were, as they were now standing still; having already spotted and now awaited the approaching duo.

Briskly walking forward, Misaya Reiroukan ignores her Servant's final warning of retreating to observe. At such a callous attitude, Lancer sighs and readies himself for the coming battle.

Getting closer, the Master of Lancer raises a hand, "Yo, Tohsaka, I came to say hello~" she says with a cheerful tone.

'_Tohsaka? Where have I...?_' Something just felt wrong to Lancer about that name. Incredibly wrong. He didn't know how wrong it was until he eyes gazed upon the red Servant.

"So, you're a Master, Reiroukan," the only confirmation Rin needed was for her own Servant to take a step forward and to also feel the presence of the tall man behind her fellow classmate, "What are you here for? An alliance?" she asks. '_Though knowing her, she's just here to mess around._'

Stopping a good distance away, the dark duo face off against the red pair.

Misaya giggles, "Nope, I'm not here for an alliance. Where's the fun in that? I'm here for a duel, Tohsaka. My Servant against yours."

The Tohsaka Head could only frown. It was a bad idea to accept, not when Luviagelita Edelfelt could be coming anytime soon. She could not handle two duels in one night, even if she expected that the Edelfelt Head would be respectfully honorable enough to postpone the fight; if only so that they could battle at full-power and try to fairly defeat each other then.

But she never got to give her answer because a low growl had come from Reiroukan's Servant.

"Archer...!" the black-clad Servant utters as a white spear suddenly appears in left hand and a black spear in his right.

Said Archer tenses, '_How did he figure out my Class?_' There should be nothing giving him away.

Rin acts differently though, staring a hole into Lancer before staring one into her own Servant. An odd action that didn't go unnoticed by Misaya.

In fact, the care-free girl completely ruined the question that the twin-tailed girl was saving for later.

"Hm? Why do the two of you look the same?"

At that comment, Archer blinks. Reinforcing his eyes, he takes a good long look at the other Servant. Indeed, it was like looking at a mirror, though there were some minor minute differences, the overall resemblance was simply far too uncanny to his liking.

"Who the hell are you?" was all the Servant of the Bow could say before the Servant of the Spear had leapt forward.

Materializing falcions of white and black, the long-distance Servant actually engages Lancer in a battle of close-combat. Such an act earns him a whistle from the rival Master and a look of shock from his own Master.

"ARCHER!" the Servant of the Spear shouts again, only much louder in volume this time, "I'LL KILL YOU!"

'_They sound the same too..._' Rin notes.

"Wow, he's really getting into it," Misaya comments intrigued; it was certainly a contrast when compared to his earlier attitude.

Lancer, as his Class suggested, was quite adept at using his two spears. Using the length of his weapons to his sheer advantage, he made sure that the Servant of the Bow could not properly escape from the piercing onslaughts that always closed the gap quickly.

Archer on the other hand was clearly impressive as well, being able to fend off the attacks with blades that did not fit his Class requirements and in a situation where his skills should be at their weakest.

"Why the hell are you using swords?! Bring out your lances!" the black-clad Servant yells out.

The red-clad Servant only retorts, "I don't know what the hell you're talking about!" This Lancer was seriously getting on his nerves somehow.

That is when Lancer decides to take several steps back and launch both his spears forward. The pointed-weapons then did something completely unexpected: they attracted one other, spinning side-by-side their shafts as though they were orbiting the other.

Blocking the attack with both of his blades, there was an immediate problem to Archer, "SHIT!"

The spears were not just thrown as a simple piercing attack. The attraction of the two weapons gave them a powerful rotation that threatened to drill through the red-clad Servant's defenses. However, the troublesome part was that Lancer already had two new identical spears in his hands and was already in the motion to throw those as well.

Swiftly, Archer jumps out of the way, letting the first attack slip pass him and keeping himself from being further pinned down.

To the Servant of the Bow there was something oddly familiar about those spears, something oddly familiar about the way Lancer fought, and something oddly familiar about the way he materialized his weapons.

Archer curses his partial amnesia as the next attack shoots pass him. The answers were on the tip of his tongue but he couldn't say what exactly it was about Lancer that was bothering him.

However, Lancer on the other hand soon became a babbling idiot; quickly stopping his assault to shout about things that made little sense to the three-person audience.

"I-I remember! This scene, this battle...! Something like that here at the school...! The Fifth War...! This... this is the part where...!"

Turning his head around quickly, Lancer spots an approaching figure.

There couldn't be any mistake, it had to be _him_.

Ignoring his opponent, the Servant of the Spear dashes away toward the newcomer shouting out one word with the entirety of his lung capacity:

"SHIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOO OOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

The boy in question only had one response to such an absurd scene:

"EEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHH?!"

In the blink of an eye, Shirou is caught, slung over the stranger's shoulder, feels a rush of wind pass by him, and then tossed down onto the cold ground next to some brown boots.

"Oh? Why, if it isn't Emiya," the voice comes from the person standing next to him. He thought he could hear a more distant 'Emiya?' across elsewhere.

'_Who is...?_' the red-headed boy tries to get his bearing but the person besides him didn't seem to care all too much about his current predicament.

"Why'd you bring him over here, Lancer?"

'_A girl...?_' the voice sounded feminine and familiar somehow.

"I'm stopping Archer from killing me!" the once screaming stranger shouts audibly lower than before.

There was a questioning look, not that Shirou could see, from Misaya quirking her brow. A silent, 'Well, duh, you're both Servants' was left said.

"No, that's...! I...! I'll explain it to you later, Master! Just protect m-, ugh, the boy for now!"

The sound of metal clashing soon returns to the quiet field.

Groggily, Shirou Emiya sits himself up off the floor.

Before him is a surreal scene. A man clad in black and a man clad in red, both wielding weapons of white and black in their hands, move to a dance of death as they try to fend off or fatally wound the other.

"Cool isn't it, Emiya?"

Looking up, the boy sees a girl dressed in blue with a grin on her face.

"Rei...roukan?" he asks in a daze. He was somewhat glad that she wasn't wearing a skirt or he might have accidentally gotten a peek. '_Though that would have been nice_,' he admits to himself.

"Yep~" his classmate wasn't even looking at the two warriors fight anymore, instead she was already focusing her attention on him and crouched down with a hand propped on her cheek, "Were you busy fixing things in the school again?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I was..."

"Really, Emiya, even the school staff have left at this point," that smile was still on her face, "Should I consider you lucky or unlucky~?"

"W-What's that suppose to mean?" Shirou is nervous that her face is so close to his own.

Misaya only gets up and turns to the battle, "Maybe later, Emiya," this time there was a smirk on her face, "We have company."

Then a shadow instantly appears to Shirou's side; it was the black-clad man called 'Lancer' again.

The stranger picks the teen up the collar of his brown blazer, "Stand up," he says whilst still keeping an eye at his previous red opponent and also elsewhere.

Forcibly standing now, the third-rate magus takes a look at the other group and sees Rin Tohsaka standing next to the red swordsman.

"Tohsaka?" though he doesn't get an answer.

From elsewhere, another tall and short couple appears.

If Misaya Reiroukan's side could be called 'Team Black,' with Rin Tohsaka's as 'Team Red,' then this new group was clearly 'Team Blue.'

"Oh-hohoho!" laughs the shorter blue figure, "It is I, Luviagelita Edelfelt! It seems you're in a bit of a pickle, Tohsaka~!"

Rin sighs at the gloating entrance, whilst the armored-men seem to have mixed reactions to her presence.

"Luvia?" Shirou utters. Another one of his classmates was involved in this... this... whatever the heck was going on?

The approaching girl is momentarily stunned at hearing his voice, "S-Shirou? Why are you here?" and when she gets a good look of where he was, she was not happy, "Reiroukan, you harpy, get away from Shirou right this instance!"

Misaya steps behind the boy and hugs his waist, "Oh~? And what are you going to do about it, Edelfelt? Perhaps a duel between your Servant and mines?" This was honestly too close for comfort for the blushing red Shirou. "Winner gets to keep Emiya all to herself~?"

"Y-You...!" the flustered ringlet-haired girl turns to her rival, "Tohsaka, a truce, I say! Only until we get rid of this vile harpy and show her her place!"

Rin sighs again, '_I can at least count on Edelfelt not to backstab me._' It was not necessarily trust, but it was hard for the Tohsaka Head to imagine the prideful and honest Edelfelt Head to be the scheming sort. "Fine, a truce for now, Edelfelt," she answers, "Reiroukan's Servant is Lancer."

The blond girl hums as she examines the scene before her. The person standing next to Rin Tohsaka was wielding blades of white and black, "I was hoping for Tohsaka to believe you a Saber Class, but it seems she has already summoned a Saber..." Luvia whispers to her Servant.

"With luck they shall assume of me to be Rider. They will not think that a Caster would even try to fight with swords against one of the Knight Classes."

"Well, whatever the case, I want you to separate Shirou from that harpy!"

"I see that you have a liking for this boy."

"W-We can talk about that later, Caster!"

Finished with their planning, Luviagelita speaks up, "Very well then, Reiroukan! Let's see how well your Lancer fares against Tohsaka's Saber and my Rider!" and then she laughs.

"No, he's Archer!" was the Servant of the Spear's immediate outcry.

"He's Archer?" the blond inspects the red-clad Servant with a quirked eyebrow, "Where's your bow?"

This was getting ridiculously nowhere for everybody.

And then Shirou Emiya interrupts them, "Um... can anybody explain to me what's going on here?" he asks with a weakly raised hand.

Misaya happily answers, "Emiya, what we're doing here is suppose to be a secret. Normal witnesses are suppose to be killed on sight."

A shiver runs down his spine and he gulps.

"Don't worry, I won't let you die!" Lancer says. That didn't really comfort the boy though.

"Ah, but we're done here anyways. Catch ya later, Tohsaka, Edelfelt. Let's go, Lancer," and the raven-haired girl turns around to walk away.

Lancer dispels one his spears and grabs Shirou by the waist but Luviagelita would have none of that.

"Wait a second, you harpy! Do you think I'll let you leave with Shirou?!"

Misaya only giggles, "Then come and take him away from my Servant, Edelfelt."

"Um..." Shirou's voice distracts everybody again. "Why don't we talk this over with some dinner at my place?"

All the people present just look at him with a 'What?' expression.

'_Did I say something wrong?_'

"Emiya," it was Rin speaking, "Do you know what you're suggesting?" she asks incredulously.

The uninvolved and naive Shirou Emiya was asking three rival Masters and their Servants, that are suppose to be fighting in a bloody war for one grand wish, to go to his place, late at night, and have dinner?

Why, yes, that was exactly what he was suggesting.

"I can cook for everybody here? It'll be no problem..." the boy was clearly grasping at straws.

The Tohsaka Head sighs, '_Is he dense? Or he refusing to accept the reality before him?_'

"Hm~" Misaya hums, "Alright, dinner sounds pretty good right about now. Thank you for the invitation, Emiya, I didn't know you were so bold~"

Luviagelita quickly adds in her own agreement, "I-I'm coming too, Shirou! I can't leave you alone with that harpy!" but inside her mind was, '_Ah~! I get to finally see the inside of Shirou's home!_'

Rin puts a hand to forehead, '_Nobody is taking this war seriously_,' she hoped that not all of the other participants were going to be this callous.

[...]

Shirou Emiya was back at the Emiya Household's kitchen and was rustling up a magnificent dinner to be served to his guests.

Waiting in his living room were three of Homurahara Academy's several beauties.

Rin Tohsaka, the twin-tail girl who has the best grades in both physical activities and academia and is even considered the most popular girl at school; nothing short of an idol with that all said and done.

Luviagelita Edelfelt, the ringlet girl who possesses a sense of charisma amongst the common people and enjoys the simple pleasures in life compared to that of a noble. She is strongly exotic, if only because she was one of the few foreigners at the school.

Misaya Reiroukan, the raven girl who dresses fashionably and looks like a model, she has a sort of sex appeal that not even the adults around her could match.

More to the point, despite being the same age as him, these three girls also clearly came from various pedigrees of nobility. Surely these girls have had incredible four or five-star meals everyday of their life? So how would his own cooking compare to those food masters?

Yes, such a thought excited the young chef.

Shirou's legal guardian, a one Taiga Fujimura, wasn't a very good caretaker of any kind, as she spent most of her time lounging around his home and sleeping or eating away the rest. So it was a sink-or-swim situation for the young third-rate magus to learn how to live on his own and with what constituted as an oversized pet of sorts as well.

Thus it was to the boy's utter delight when he had discovered that he actually had a talent for cooking and that it was also a very enjoyable hobby and activity to do. He often jokingly muses that if being a mage or hero didn't work out, then he could always open up a restaurant of his own and make a living like that.

As such, Shirou Emiya took a lot of pride in his cooking.

However, his guardian was more of a glutton than he realized and had a knack for shoveling food down her hungry hungry stomach than actually tasting the meal he prepares for her daily. So the only person who actually appreciated Shirou's cooking was his schoolmate, one year younger, Sakura Matou.

The girl had one day shown up at his house to help him with the housework when the boy had suffered a bone fracture in his right shoulder. It was during that time when the two of them became close friends and Shirou even taught the shy girl how to cook. When his injury had finally heal, he personally saw to treat the girl to a delicious meal for all her help. Afterward, the two classmates had an unspoken but playful rivalry with each other concerning who could cook the best meals.

Well, there was also Shirou's best friend, Issei Ryuudou, but he rarely came over to the Emiya Household.

So in the end, it really was more like only two people have ever had a full taste of Shirou Emiya's culinary arts. And right now was a good chance for him to get more feedback about his cooking.

That is if his guests didn't kill each other before dinner, anyways.

[...]

The three girls were sitting around the sole wooden table of Shirou Emiya's living room. To the table's left was the door to the kitchen, to the right was seated Misaya Reiroukan; to the girl's right was Rin Tohsaka and to her left was Luviagelita Edelfelt. And all the Servants were located behind their respective Master.

The atmosphere was mildly tense and almost comical.

Misaya was already making herself at home; her boots were in the entrance-way, her jacket was on the coat-hanger, and she was just lying on her sides facing the table and waiting for dinner. Yet she still had that smile on her face; absolutely confident that the other girls couldn't touch her at all. Her frivolous actions gnawed the nerves of her rivals for different reasons. Meanwhile her Servant Lancer was standing with his attention focused on Archer.

Rin was sitting with her arms crossed and had a haughty look on her face. She kept an eye on the raven-hair girl, but tried to appear as if she was just having a look see around the house. As for her Servant Archer, he was leaning on the wall and his expression was somewhere in between being aloof or annoyed, having said that he would have preferred being in Spirit Form.

Luviagelita, on the other hand, was sitting demurely and was simply happy to be inside the Emiya Household and even getting the chance to eat dinner with the young boy. Of the girls here, she was the only one who ever interacted with Shirou Emiya at school, hence why she calls him 'Shirou,' as he preferred people calling him by his first name, and why he calls her 'Luvia,' her full name being a tad difficult for the Japanese boy to pronounce. As such, she could be said to be the only one actually grateful for the coming dinner. Her Servant Caster though, was also sitting down and seemed to be deep or lost in thought.

The group had been relatively quiet, the sounds in the kitchen being the only real ambient noise in the house, until the Master of Lancer spoke.

"Kind, helpful, a great shot with the bow, good with machines, and now he's also a cook. My, my, my. Emiya is certainly an interesting person~" Misaya playfully comments, "I wonder what he'll surprise us with next~?"

"Oh-hohohoho, Shirou also has a part-time job~!" Luviagelita adds with a puffed up chest.

'_Why are you looking so proud?_' is Rin's deadpan thought.

"So, what do you girls think about Emiya?" she has a probing smile as she scans the looks of the other Masters; Luviagelita was the only one visibly startled at the question, while Rin wonders what intentions did the raven-haired girl have.

"I-I think he's a wonderful person!" the Edelfelt Head stops herself short of saying anything she might regret.

Rin huffs her reply, "I've only ever spoken a few words to Emiya but he seems to be an upstanding and pleasant person. And you?" she definitely would not let the topic-starter get away without answering.

"Mmh~" the girl hums, "I suppose you could say that I find him interesting."

Sakura Matou was bad enough, Luviagelita didn't need another girl vying for Shirou's affection, "I-Interesting? What do you mean by that?"

"I don't know, I can't really explain it, I just find him interesting is all~"

No more was said because it was at this moment when Shirou chose to come out of the kitchen and place the plates and bowls on the table. Quickly and efficiently, the entire table is covered in food; not surprising since it was a dinner for seven.

Sitting on the last unoccupied spot, Shirou Emiya has a smile on his face, it was a bit wry or perhaps nervous looking as he scratches the back of his head.

"Ah, I've only ever cooked for Teacher Fujimura and Sakura before, so if you don't mind, I would like to hear your opinions about the meal."

This was getting weird by even a magus' standard let alone a normal person's.

With little shame, the young Emiya has opted to forgo talking about the mystical event that occurred only two hours earlier, that could have possibly gotten him killed, to instead get critiques about his cooking from his possibly-almost killers.

Something just felt incredibly off about this boy.

"I think I understand what you mean by 'interesting,' Reiroukan," Rin says bluntly.

Shirou blubbers a "Huh?" but then ignores the statement to look at the other guests, "Come on you three, get over to the table. As you can see, there's enough room and food for everybody here."

Of course, unknown to the boy, these three were Servants. Food was more of a pleasure than a necessity to them, as they only needed prana to survive in this world; even though food could be converted into a minuscule amount of prana.

However, at least two of them appreciated the kind gesture.

Archer 'humph' and only sits down when his Master gives him a glaring look that basically said, 'Don't embarrass me, Archer, have some manners!' Caster did not make any fuss and scoots over to the table, sitting to the right of her Master. As for Lancer, he was sitting to the right of his Master with plenty of distrust for the Servant of the Bow, and takes his seat when Misaya decided to finally sit up straight.

Shirou claps his hand and starts the daily eating grace, "Thank you for the food."

[...]

The table is cleared of its content and the general mood in the room lightens up.

'Wonder Chef,' coined by Misaya, receives positive review for his cooking; if there was a mythical Six-Star then they would have given him a Seven-Star, and Luviagelita is even somewhat jealous that Sakura Matou gets to eat delightful meals like this everyday.

Rin is also jealous but that bordered towards greed. She is detrimentally surprised that the dinner was made from ingredients that could be found in any old supermarket and that Shirou Emiya apparently had enough skills to perfect the taste to rival even chefs with the best quality ingredients one could buy; in other words, it was all about the expenses going into the meal.

'_Curse you, Emiya!_' If she had such talents in cooking then she would have already opened up a restaurant and be swimming in money and then maybe buy herself a few hundreds of jewels to aid in her magecraft.

But with that all said and done, it was now time for the meat, or perhaps the bare bones, of tonight's topic.

As always, it is Misaya dictating the flow of the conversation, since the Edelfelt seems a bit nervous around the boy and the Tohsaka seems to want to keep to herself as much as possible.

"So then, Emiya, what do you want do know~?" the Reiroukan asks. She has an elbow on the table and a fist propped under her chin.

"Please, just call me 'Shirou,'" he says before crossing his arms, he looked to be deep in thought but his question came within seconds, "Why are you three fighting? Is there any way that you three can just talk it out?"

This is where Rin Tohsaka drew the line with a twitching brow.

This boy, Shirou Emiya was a complete enigma, a strange being that made no sense. He had not a question about the warriors, not a question about the weapons, not a question about the battle. No, none of that, instead he had chosen to ask why they were fighting in the first place and if it could be stopped; as if he was a responsible adult looking at a children's quarrel.

So she said the first thing that came to mind, "Are you an idiot?"

Shirou is genuinely stunned. He was always called an 'idiot' by his semi-friend and classmate, Shinji Matou, Sakura's older brother, but that was more like Shinji's disposition to do so. To hear it from the school idol with such hostility was jarring and absolutely befuddling.

'_Did I say something wrong again?_'

"That was uncalled for, Tohsaka!" cries the ringlet-haired girl in his defense.

Misaya's grin only widens, "You're truly interesting, Emiya," the boy notes that she was still using his family name, "I thought you would have asked about something else or talk with more surprise or enthusiasm."

Weakly scratching his cheek, he chuckles, "Ah, well, you three are magus, right? Well I am one too, if not a terrible one, so I'm not really shocked by all the weird things going on tonight."

The three girls quickly had a look with each other.

No, none of them knew that at all. Yes, they really should have realized that sooner; it was the most logical answer of why he was taking everything so well.

Reiroukan only laughs loudly, "Ah, Archer Ace, Student Janitor, Wonder Chef, and now Magus? Ah, ah~ Interesting, you really are interesting, Emiya~! What's next? Are you going to reveal that you're Master too~?"

Everybody perks up their ears.

Shirou chuckles wryly, "Well, sorry, but I don't know what that is."

Rin Tohsaka decides it is time for herself to take charge of the situation. It absolutely made no sense for her to be doing this, whether Shirou Emiya was a magus or not, he simply wasn't a Master so had no need for information concerning the Holy Grail War, however, if she didn't say anything then that Misaya Reiroukan certainly would.

As the landlord of Fuyuki City she would not allow that upstart Reiroukan to break any more rules that weren't already thrown out the window at this point; Rin would rather do it herself if that was the case!

And indeed, it was.

The sheer absurdity that three Masters and their Servants had stopped their fighting only to have dinner in an unrelated magus' home to discuss a secret war was already beyond reason. She sincerely hoped that the rest of the war wasn't going to be so surreal or stupid; she definitely did not expect something like this at all.

Taking up a lecturing gesture with her arms, Tohsaka is looking quite haughty compared to her usual pleasant facade at school, "Emiya," she calls out to the boy, "I'm only going to explain this once, so pay attention," and then, after seeing his reaffirming nod, begins her simple and summarized explanation, "We are currently participating in a secret war for a wish-granting artifact here in Fuyuki City. In this tournament, seven magi are chosen to become Masters and each must summon a Servant. In the end, only one Master and one Servant shall have their wish granted by the artifact," she pauses, "And that's all you need to know, Emiya. Do you understand?"

Shirou nods, "So what are your wishes?"

Once again, almost every time the third-rate magus opens his mouth, he somehow manages to stun the other three's thoughts.

Every Master had their own reasons for the Grail but what did it matter to them about wishes other than their own? It was completely unusual that someone who claimed to be a magus was showing any kind of genuine interest in their wishes at all.

"My, Emiya," Misaya giggles, "You're really forceful aren't you?"

"Huh?"

"Well, my wish," the Reiroukan places a finger to her lips, "is a secret."

"Hmph, it's to reach the Akashic Records," Rin answers quickly.

Luviagelita just latches onto her rival's wish, "I-I as well wish to reach the Akashic Records!"

The boy closes his eyes for a few seconds before opening them again, "Can't you three, I don't know, come to a truce or something? Do you really have to fight?" there is a tone of concern laced in his words.

But Rin would have none of that nonsense and slams a hand onto the table. It was unrefined and contrary to the Tohsaka Family pride, but the red-haired boy was truly trying her patience.

"Do you know how stupid you sound right now, Emiya?"

Shirou would have simply bumbled some more but he didn't get the chance.

A ringing and tolling noise resounds through the boy's mind, it is the warning signal that someone has walked into the Bounded Field around his home with both a dangerous mindset and all the lethal intent to unleash it on him.

All three Servants seemed to have detected something similar as they all stand up looking incredibly tense. Each Master then readies themselves for an unexpected guest. This time Shirou is placed under the protective custody of Luviagelita before Lancer could usher him to his side, though the Servant of the Spear didn't seem to mind all that much.

"This is too soon..." Lancer mutters, "Master, I suggest we go outside," he says, already making his way to leave, "Now."

"Something the matter, Lancer?" Misaya is honestly curious.

The Servant pauses at the doorway but urges the entire group to hurry, "If we fight here then there won't be anything left of the house."

"I didn't really think that you would care about this house all too much."

"I admit that it has a bit of sentimental value to me," he says, "but if the Servant is who I think it is, then fighting him in a enclosed space is not to my, or Archer's, advantage."

"You sound awfully confident, almost as if you almost know what's going to happen, eh, Lancer~?"

"Some things aren't exactly how I remember them, but things are happening more or less as they should be..."

The girls wanted to retrieve their shoes but Lancer pushed them onward, thus they had to exit with their only leg-wear being their socks.

"Remember, Lancer? Oh, how mysterious, what is that suppose to mean?"

"I'll explain it to you later, Master. In private, when we're safer. For now, we need to tend to our unwelcomed guests."

Rin Tohsaka was listening very carefully to the conversation between Reiroukan and her Servant. There were many peculiarities about Lancer from the way he talked. Almost as if...

Out in the distance, standing on the grass of the Emiya backyard is a duo consisting of a small girl and a large man.

The small girl, no, she wasn't just small, she was young, a child even, is wearing purple-colored wintry clothing; even though it was cold out at night, the clothing were so furred that they were more appropriate for snowing weather. But what stood out the most about the young girl was her white hair and red eyes. An innocent, yet victorious, smile gracing her tiny face.

The man besides her is dark, so dark that he could have blended into the night seamlessly were it not for the few scars on his upper arms that almost seem to glow white even in the night. His posture is rough and he looks almost dead, as if he has no life in him.

"Hello, big brother~! I've come to play with you~!" the girl chimes in a bell-like tone.

There was really only one person that could possibly qualify for that position here amongst the seven.

"You mean me?" Shirou steps forward with a finger pointed at himself.

The girl answers cheerfully with a giggle, "Of course, big brother~! I've been waiting a long time for this~!"

"Emiya, who is she?" Rin asks.

"I... don't know," the boy answers confused, "I think I might have seen her a week ago?" he racks his brain.

The most unexpected answer came from Lancer.

"That's Illyasviel von Einzbern, Master of Berserker. She's your step-sister, older than you by a year or so."

Archer couldn't contain his deep growl from seeping out his throat as a piece of his memory is jogged by the statement. The growl had less to do with what he had remembered, as much as it had to do with the fact that Lancer actually knew who the girl was.

Shirou on the other hand quickly looks back at the black-clad Servant, "Wait, she's older than me?"

Truly, what is wrong with this boy? Why did he keep focusing on the weirdest of things?

"More importantly, how do you know that?" Rin asks.

Misaya agreed, "I'm curious too, Lancer."

He ignores them though, instead focusing on the Black Servant, "But that isn't the Berserker I know..." he mutters, "That's not Heracles..."

Having waiting long enough, even graciously giving the group enough time to plan amongst themselves, Illyasviel raises her voice:

"Berserker, kill them~"

[...]

A soft bell, fragile and cracked. A tone that belies its beauty and its sorrows. A melody that he has not heard in ages. It soothes his soul because it was for that song that he gained the powers that he now possessed.

"Berserker, kill them~"

And so he moves.

Prana surges throughout his body. The natural twenty-seven Magic Circuits of his soul all activate at once. But even more from his physical body flare up: nerves. Nerves turned into Magic Circuits. Hundred thousands of them switch on in a blazing glory.

His body is being destroyed inside-out, yet he does not perish; a cancerous healing counteracts the ruinous damages.

In life, he did know what he was doing was truly wrong. But such a dangerous procedure followed by his tenacity led to this overwhelming network.

Yes, all for the little bell.

To hear from a dying father that he had a sibling, he had devoted himself to be the strongest brother.

This was a second chance he was given and he would not fail her again.

This time he will protect her.

This time she will not die.

For his body is made of swords.

[...]

Twin blades of black and white appear in the hands of Berserker. The air around him warps as blades, blades of every shape and every kind, materialize in the air, cutting through the fabric of reality.

Within an instant the field is covered in blades.

But the Servant of the Spear, the Servant of the Bow, and the Servant of the Spells do not fall.

They too create spears and blades of their own; high-speed weapons collide with one another in waves after waves, each diverting the other from their intended path. Once their weapons had served their purpose, the materialize spears and blades disappear; all but Berserker's weapons were left to litter the ground.

The three Servants stand before their Masters. They cannot stop the entire onslaught weapon for weapon and personally swat away the few that fly too close. In their hands are weapons of black and white.

"Shit...!" Lancer sweats, "Those swords... that guy, he's usin-"

"Tracing," Caster provides.

"What is that?" The Masters and Shirou ask in unison.

However, at that moment, Berserker charges in but he is intercepted by Lancer and Archer; Caster staying behind to defend the Masters from stray attacks. But even then, the battle is in Berserker's favor.

Blades of every form and color, rage and fury of every emotion, Berserker strikes without holding back. Blades, blades, blades, blades, blades. The field is riddled with blades and every blade performs an action beyond belief.

It is impossible for Lancer or Archer to evade his attacks without receiving nicks here and there.

"What the hell?! Those...! Those are all Noble Phantasms!" Rin shouts, "Who the hell is this Berserker?!"

"Noble Phantasm?" Shirou asks.

Caster answers while keeping a watchful eye on the battle, "Crystallized mysteries. They are weapons or abilities of a Heroic Spirit's legend. You may consider them a trump card for Servants. For example, have you heard of Excalibur?"

"Yeah, the sword of King Arthur, right?"

"Yes, that is the one. If King Arthur was summoned as a Servant then their Noble Phantasm would have been Excalibur."

"I see... Then what is Tracing? Is that a Noble Phantasm too?"

"No, it is not... not technically anyways, but considering what it does, it might as well be."

"And what exactly does it do?" Rin questions with a tapping feet.

"Is it is a unique form of Projection. If we say that Projection creates hollow objects at ten-percent accuracy, then Tracing creates objects with history at ninety-percent accuracy."

"So all those Noble Phantasms are just copies?" Luviagelita theorizes, "Is that even possible?"

Caster pauses to gather her answer, "It is. The ability to Trace comes from a Reality Marble that records and stores that information. You can say that Tracing is simply bringing the analyzed object into existence from that library."

Shirou had a puzzled look on his face, "Reality Marble?"

"Imagine how the world seems to a blind person. Now imagine if that person could make everybody else experience the world as they does. A Reality Marble is something like that."

"Okay..."

Rin glares suspiciously at the Servant, "You seem to know an awfully lot about this."

Caster turns to her Master and gets a nod in return. Luviagelita was also curious and now was not the time to be holding back information; they needed all the information they could get about Berserker.

"Very well... that is because Lancer, Archer, Berserker, and I can all Trace."

Rin covers her mouth with a hand, her mind churning out the possibilities, "Wait, but that means..."

"That is correct, all of us have very similar Reality Marbles."

"T-That can't be possible, even if you're Heroic Spirits, no, even if you all had Reality Marbles, they shouldn't all be so similar to such a degree!"

"There's more to it than that, isn't there?" The Edelfelt Head uneasily asks. There was no turning back now.

"...Yes, there is a high possibility that all the Servants here, perhaps even all the Servants that have been summoned in this war, are of the same existence; our history running parallel but alternate to the other," Caster responds flatly, "I would not be surprised if that was the case, since the Throne of Heroes is suppose to be outside the concepts of time and space."

Misaya hums, "So you're saying that you aren't Heroic Spirits of this world and time, is that right?"

"No, no, wait a second!" Tohsaka stomps, "That doesn't make any sense! How does the same person get summon seven times over?!"

"Existence," the female Servant corrects, "We may have shared similar roles but we have played them quite differently. However, that is true, Tohsaka, for us to be summoned like this, it is simply too odd."

Watching the fight, Shirou is getting worried, "Shouldn't you go help them? That Berserker guy seems pretty tough."

"If I leave then a traced weapon may breach our formation and I will be unable to defend any of you from a distance, or perhaps a hidden enemy Master will strike when I am away. But..."

"But?"

"It would indeed help if you go and summon a Servant instead, Boy."

"What?!" Rin, Shirou, and Luviagelita yell out.

The twin-tailed girl stares at him, "He doesn't even have a Command Seal!"

"M-Me, summon a Servant?"

"That is what I am recommending. No matter when or where, you are most likely destined to become involved in the 5th Holy Grail War in one manner or another."

"W-Wait just a second! Why me? What are you saying?"

Caster pauses in her explanation and gives the boy a hard long look before looking away. He did not seem ready for the responsibility of being a Master.

Rin goes wide-eyes, "You have got to be kidding me...! You four are...!"

The Servant of the Spell gently sighs.

"It seems that you have figure it out, Tohsaka... What you are thinking of is correct: we are the existence known as 'Shirou.'"

* * *

**Author Notes**

One giant chapter that should have seriously been cut up into multiple chapters...

We need a more competent writer than myself for this fic. Seriously, I have no idea how any of the characters are suppose to act... Why am I using English more than Japanese honorific...? The narrative is all over the place... Why did I type out this story...? So many things wrong, so many mysteries...

Misaya Reiroukan is from Fate/Prototype, and man do I love her character design. And Manaka Sajyou is also from Fate/Prototype.

Let's see our Masters are Illyasviel von Einzbern, Misaya Reiroukan, Rin Tohsaka, Manaka Sajyou, Luviagelita Edelfelt, Sakura Matou, and Shirou Emiya. Wait a second... they're all girls except for Shirou, the golden route must a harem ending?!

When is the next chapter coming out? I don't know, I really should stop making so much stories and focus finishing my other ones... In fact, unless I get possessed again by 'inspiration' I predict that there won't be an update to this in any forseeable future.

_[Rewritten and uploaded on 11/5/12]_


	2. Every Hero Is Shirou

**Fate Shirou**

Chapter Two

_Here They Are, Grail Of Wishes. Do You Have Enough Shirou?_

_[EVERY HERO IS SHIROU]_

* * *

**Previously on Fate Shirou:** _Hey, Throne of Heroes, We Need Spirits With An Attitude!_

A new Holy Grail War begins!

Illyasviel von Einzbern summons Berserker, Misaya Reiroukan summons Lancer, Rin Tohsaka summons Archer, Manaka Sajyou summons Assassin, Luviagelita Edelfelt summons Caster, Sakura Matou summons Rider, and Shirou Emiya fixes school appliances with magic!

Misaya Reiroukan and Lancer go to say hello to Rin Tohsaka and Archer at school but accidentally get Shirou Emiya involved!

Luviagelita and Caster suddenly appear and Shirou Emiya decided to invite everybody to dinner at his house!

But the meal is interrupted by a hostile Illyasviel and Berserker!

And all the Servants in this war might be an alternate version of Shirou!

**This time on Fate Shirou:** _Here They Are, Grail Of Wishes. Do You Have Enough Shirou?_

* * *

Blades and spears, color and light, friction and mass; the battle of Berserker versus Lancer and Archer rages on.

The sound of weapons meeting weapons, of tools shattering and clattering, the earth being upturned, and the inhuman roar of the raging Servant permeates the air.

Little by little the Servants of the Bow and the Servant of the Spear are losing ground and are being pushed back toward their own Masters.

Bone cracks, veins burst, muscle tear; his strength is a poison. Bones reform, veins close, muscle reshape; his healing a cancer.

The field is littered with the blood and blades of Berserker. But no attacks can phase him. No wounds may slow him. No enemy shall deter him.

He is the Servant of the Madness yet he is not powered by his rage.

For he pours pure determination into his ruined body.

[...]

"Does this guy have no blind spots?!" shouts Lancer as his rain of spears collides with Berserker's storm of swords. '_Damn it! It's like if that bastard Gilgamesh was fused with Heracles!_'

Blades materialize in the air with reckless abandon and no hesitation. Their only purpose to stab and kill, no tricks or traps, just plain swift brutality.

The Servant of the Spear can only match weapon for weapon to avoid his demise.

If there was just one more ally, just one more to assist him and Archer, then that would provide enough of an opportunity for him to find an opening.

'_Summon a Servant already, my younger self!_'

[...]

Archer was having an excellent day, as the sequences of events in the 5th Holy Grail War were happening almost exactly as he remembers them to be.

Almost.

The fact that the key players seem to be utterly different from when he was alive and Saber hasn't even been summoned yet chills his mind. The events were only similar but not exact.

This Lancer was not Chu Chulainn nor was his Master the priest, Kirei Kotomine. Who the heck was this girl, Misaya Reiroukan? Why the hell was Luviagelita Edelfelt here years earlier than she should be and why is she a Master? Why did she summon a Rider? Or rather, why wasn't Rider summoned by Sakura Matou? Speaking of, that Rider isn't even Medusa! And who is that Berserker that clearly isn't Heracles?

Also, why the heck did Lancer look like him and how could all the Servants so far use Tracing?!

Such thinking stabs at the subconscious of Archer as his memories were quickly but messily piecing themselves together.

In reality, Archer already knew the truth of matter.

But he could not accept it; he just could not.

'_Damn it, Alaya! Damn it all!_'

Because if he did then he was doomed from the very beginning.

[...]

"So you're me, huh?" Shirou says as he inspects Caster with an up-and-down gaze.

"You seem to be taking this awfully well, Emiya," Misaya says with a smile. Indeed, Shirou Emiya is a very interesting individual.

"Should I feel shock? I mean, my dad once told me about magic like this once."

Rin interjects, "The Second Magic?"

It's other name being 'the Operation of Parallel Worlds,' another True Magic just like Heaven's Feel.

"I think that's it."

"Regardless," Caster starts, "Boy, you should go and summon a Servant."

"I'm very interested in seeing what kind of Servant that Emiya would summon but wouldn't it be easier if we just attack Berserker's Master?" Reiroukan yawns out.

Shirou narrowed his brows, "We can't hurt a little girl!"

"She's as old as us, Emiya!" Rin retorts, "And in case you forgot, she's trying to kill us!"

"Look, maybe I can talk with her and get her to stop."

"Is that possible, Ca-, R-Rider?" Luviagelita asks, "Can we form a truce or an alliance with her?"

"I do not know, Master. The Illyasviel von Einzbern of my world was not as cheerful as this one; she was an emotionless doll and had no familial connection to I. It would be more appropriate to ask Lancer."

"Why not my Archer?" Rin huffs with folded arms.

"...My personal opinion is that Lancer is less likely to withhold information from us," the Servant of the Spells answers before rushing to the battle, leaving no dissenting arguments.

"Lancer, switch," the female Servant shouts.

"O-Okay!" the black-clad Servant agrees. He knocks away several swords before leaping out to give way to the female Servant. '_Man, that Rider is good... She's not Medusa, so who is she?_'

The Servant of the Spells is performing just as well he was. Physically she is weaker on all accounts but her ability to materialize blades is much faster than what he, Archer, or even Berserker could do and the strength of her traces blades were more or less on par with the raging Servant.

With a glancing affirmation that the self-proclaimed Servant of the Mount could hold her own, Lancer dashes back to the undefended group and takes his position as their guards.

Relinquishing one spear, he knocks away the flying blades that went through the hole of Caster's and Archer's defenses, "Damn, how long will this take...?"

"Lancer," Misaya calls, "Is there any way we can get the Einzbern to stop?"

The Servant snorts, "Knowing her, we just gotta wait until she gets bored."

"Is this funny to you?" Rin stomps her feet once.

"This is just her way of saying hello."

"What about an alliance then?" his master asks.

"Hm..." he hums, "No, that's not likely either. She's the type to come and goes as she pleases."

'_Ugh, like a little Reiroukan_,' Rin thinks to herself.

"Anyways!" Lancer raises his voice, "Shirou Emiya!" he points to the boy, "We need all the help we can get, so why haven't you summoned a Servant yet?!"

"He doesn't even have a Command Seal!" Rin repeats herself.

"It's fine!" the Servant of the Spear shouts, "When I was hi-, I mean, when I, er, no, I mean, I know for a fact that if you can call forth a Servant then you'll receive a Command Seal after the summoning!"

"Lancer," Misaya says, "You don't need to keep correcting yourself. We already know that you're Shirou Emiya from the future~" she sneers.

"Huh, wha? B-But how?!"

"Edelfelt's Servant told us."

"Rider did?! How did she know?!"

"Because she's also 'Shirou,' or so she says~" Misaya hums.

Shirou adds in, "Ah, Berserker too."

"But... huuuhhhhh?!" Lancer bumbles, '_That explains why everybody can Trace..._', and continues, "What... What is going here?! No! No, nevermind! We're getting off track here!" he nudges his head to the side, "Everybody, we're moving to the shed!"

"Huh, we're going to my shed?" Shirou asks while the group moves behind Lancer.

"Yes, we're going to our shed! An old magic circle for summoning Servants is already there, so all we need to do is have you activate it! So get a move on!"

The group of humans trod along to the lonely shed, making sure they stay within the Servant of the Spear's defensive reach.

"Summon something good, Emiya~" Misaya winks at the boy.

"The only Classes still available should be Saber, Assassin, and Ri-, ahem, Caster," Luviagelita notes.

"How can we be sure that they all haven't already been summoned?" Rin questions.

"It's worth a try!" Lancer says as he knocks a blade away.

Shirou Emiya opens the door to his shed, disarming a few of the protections inside, and walks in with the girls following behind while Lancer stays by the entrance.

"What do I do now?" the boy asks.

"I was sorta under a life-or-death situation when I had accidentally summoned Lancer to save me. So, you're better off asking Rin!"

The twin-tail girl perks up, "'Rin'? Hey, why are you calling me by my first name?" she crosses her arms, '_Archer does the same thing and it bothers me._'

"Ah, well, we were allies during the war and you were the person who helped me with my magecraft."

"Now that is interesting to hear, Lancer~" Misaya smiles, "I can't wait to hear you're whole life story."

"Later, Master. If the Dream Cycle doesn't fill you in first, then I'll explain it to you personally. So, Rin, help my younger self, will ya?"

"Hmph, fine," the Tohsaka Head huffs, "Now listen closely, Emiya!"

[...]

_In my name, I summon thee..._

[...]

A fair distance away, outside of Fuyuki City but still within the territory of its boundary, a wooden cabin is occupied by a pair of people.

One is an legitimate magus that serves the Mage's Association. This man is ordinary at best but had been chosen to become a Master for the 5th Holy Grail War. He sits on a comfy chair drinking wine by the fireplace as he dreams of victory. He has no drive to fight, none at all, his plan was simply to wait until all the other Masters fought and killed themselves before he would swoop in and claim the prize.

He sighs and takes a peek at his partner: his Servant.

A tall man with tanned skin, white hair, and gray eyes. He is dressed in all black modern clothing, a suit with a duster, and his expression was ever stoic. His voice was cold and hard and always seemed to lack emotion.

Servant Saver.

This is an unusual Class; the magus had never heard of it before but who was he to complain if that gave him a chance to participate in the 5th Holy Grail War?

"Master, are we just going to sit here and wait?" Saver asks, but it seemed that even his patience was running thin.

"Of course," the magus answers, "Letting the other Masters kill themselves is the best plan of action. There's no need for us to pointlessly risk our life. Didn't you agree with me when I told you that?"

"Allowing our enemies to wear themselves out is indeed a perfectly logical and sound plan. However, I do not agree with sitting back and letting the other Masters and Servants to do as they please."

"I don't see your point, Saver," the magus answers honestly. He could see no benefit in interfering in the fights of the other participants.

The modern black-clad Servant simply stayed silent.

"Well, if it bothers you so much then, feel free to make a trip to the city. Just be sure that you avoid battle with the other Servants," the magus lazily waves.

Saver nods and then walks out the door.

Once outside, he scowls, "Fuck you." He believes his Master to be a pathetic and short-minded fool.

[...]

Short purple-red hair, reddish-brown eyes, long silver earrings, black gloves and a dark purple suit; a professional magus killer, that is 'a mage that kills,' and this woman had an angry frown on her face.

Bazett Fraga McRemitz was not happy right now.

She was planning on summoning her Servant today in front of her old friend and current Mediator of the 5th Holy Grail War, Kirei Kotomine, but she had discovered from him that the Classes of Lancer, Caster, and Berserker were already taken.

Now, what was so important about those three Classes?

Well, those were the Classes that the Irish Hero, the Hound of Ulster, Cu Chulainn, could have been appropriately summoned in.

The legend of Chu Chulainn was a tragic one, something that Bazett could relate to. She had every intention of joining the 5th Holy Grail War with that hero so that she could save him from his inevitable fate.

But now fighting besides him was not possible. However, her wish did not change, so long as she won the war then she could still have her wish granted of saving him.

And luckily for her there was still one Class available in this war: Saber. Reputed to be the strongest Class, it has always managed to be a finalist in every Grail War. With this her victory was almost assured.

Bazett did not have a catalyst for a specific hero but that should not matter too much in the grand scheme of things; for any legendary figure that had ascended to the Throne of Heroes and worthy of the Saber Class was certain to be of both skill and power.

"Are you ready?" Kirei Kotomine asks with a light smile; the man always seemed to have a smile on his face. He was standing a few steps behind the woman.

"As ready as I'll ever be, Father Kotomine."

She takes a deep breath and then summons her Servant.

Before the smoke clears away, before anything can move, two hands appear and wrap themselves around Bazett's frame along with a slender body pressing down on her from the front.

"EEHHH?!" the magus killer squeaks as her Servant was hugging her rather tightly. Bazett couldn't see the figure properly, but she could tell that the person was shorter than her with long black hair that was dragging all over the floor.

"Hello, Master," the Servant speaks in a feminine and sultry voice, "It's nice to meet you~"

"W-Who are you?"

"Servant Avenger~"

Bazett blinks, "Avenger? You're not Saber?"

"How odd," Kirei Kotomine speaks out, "Well, a Servant is a Servant. Bazett, know that I, the Supervisor of the Fifth Holy Grail War, consider your participation to be completely legal, justified, and sanctioned."

"O-Oh, is that so? Thank you, Father Kotomine. B-But why didn't I get Saber?"

"That, I'm unfortunate to say, I do not know," the man says with a light smile, "Though I would like to make a suggestion to you, Bazett."

"What would that be?"

"Please find your Servant appropriate clothing to wear before you leave."

"Eh?" Looking down, the magus killer sees Avenger's youthful facing looking up at her, noticeably the Servant's right eye was golden and her left was red, but further below that she sees pale flesh skin, the mounds of her chest, the pink of her ar- "EH? EEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH?!"

[...]

Father Kirei Kotomine, Mediator of the 5th Holy Grail War, waves his hand at the leaving pair: an embarrassed but thankful Bazett Fraga McRemitz and her now clothed-in-priest-clothes Servant Avenger.

The man wore simple clothing; a black priest outfit over a dark blue robe. His features were his scruffy dirty brown mop-like hair and equally dirty brown eyes but most importantly the pleasantly smug smile he always kept on his face.

As the Mediator of the war that meant the church on the hill was considered neutral territory. Furthermore, he was always acutely aware of which Servants were summoned and which Servants have actually perished; this nifty ability took the form of tarot-like cards.

After making sure the pair were gone, Kirei Kotomine walks back into the building.

'_What a shame_,' he thinks, '_That I could not kill Bazett with my own hands._'

Indeed, this man was as far from neutral as one could expect. He had originally planned to take advantage of Bazett's kindness to catch her off guard, cut off her arm and steal her Command Seals, and then leave her die in the church basement. After that he would have used the newly obtained Servant as a tool to manipulate the war in his favor.

However, he did not expect the Servant to instantly defend her Master the second she was summoned. Kirei clearly remembers those teasing and knowing eyes that were glaring at him only moments ago.

'_Avenger..._'

That was a Class said to have been summoned by the Einzbern and had replaced the Berserker Class in the 3rd Holy Grail War seventy years ago. But, other than that, the Servant was a complete mystery; as it was only during the 4th Holy Grail War did stricter regulations were put into place, so information about the three earlier wars were fairly scarce.

No one is sure what qualifications are necessary for the Avenger Class, though some educated guesses could be made from the name alone, nor why it was summoned in the 3rd Holy Grail War, or what advantages this Class could possibly possess.

Such things were completely unknown since the Avenger of the 3rd Heaven's Feel was believed to have abysmal stats as it was the first to be defeated at the earliest point possible of that war.

In other words: a truly shrouded mystery.

No, rather, it could be also said that the 5th Holy Grail War too was already something far beyond a mystery at this point and was now a question that only answered itself by asking more questions.

'_How odd, indeed_,' Kirei muses to himself. In his hand he held eight cards.

Berserker, a warm brown card with a wolf-head wearing tribal man wielding a giant cleaver in hand. It appeared about two months ago and the owner had paid him the due and obligatory visit about a week ago. That was Illyasviel von Einzbern and her Servant, it seemed, was the Greek Hero Heracles.

Lancer, a cold reddish-brown card depicting a lightly-armored pole-man who looked more like a musketeer or fencer. Archer, a warm pink card with a bow-woman in a red skirt. Assassin, a cold reddish-brown card revealing a skeletal man dressed in black with dark daggers. Caster, a cold blue card showing a hooded old wizard holding onto a book and staff. Rider, a neutral brown card that had an armored knight riding a chariot. These were all cards that appeared tonight, so Kirei had yet to meet the owners.

But then there were two unexpected cards; one in front of these and one behind them.

One was Saver, a warm yellow card with a woman descending down like an angel from heaven; this card had appeared several days ago and the owner had not shown themselves. The other was the newly acquired Avenger, a cold red card displaying an anorexic man dressed in rags and chained down.

There were eight Servants in what should originally only be seven. No, the Saber Class had still yet to be summoned, so that would be a total of nine Servants in this Grail War. Why were there two extra Servants? Kirei Kotomine did not honestly know.

'_I need to adjust my plans_,' was the only worries the man of the cloth had.

[...]

_Trace On!_

[...]

Shirou Emiya gulps down his saliva as stands in front of the glowing red magic circle that was empowered by his blood. The three girls, Misaya Reiroukan, Rin Tohsaka, and Luviagelita Edelfelt, were standing behind him.

'_This... is tough._'

He wasn't troubled by the possibility of dying should he fail, not at all. The roars of the raging battle outside barely registered in his mind. After all, one of the very first things he was told by his late father, Kiritsugu Emiya, was that to be a magus then one must be willing to walk alongside death. Dying? That's easy.

Performing a magic ritual amongst the popular girls of Homurahara Academy and hoping he doesn't make a fool out of himself? Now that's hard.

Rin had given him some tips and pointer, the basic mostly being: 'whatever feels right.' That was pretty much it, he was just suppose to prattle his mouth off with feel good words until something happened.

Hopefully that something was summoning a recognizable Servant and not getting his limbs hacked off for some equivalent exchange of an abomination.

Licking his lips, he turns around to face the trio with a 'I'm going to do it!' face and Tohsaka answers with a nod which he returns.

'_I hope I don't blow this._'

He takes a deep breath in and takes a deep breath out. He creates a magic circuit out of a single nerve, which was like pressing a hot iron on his spine, before starting his make-shift chant.

"I call upon thus in the name of Emiya Shirou.

To that purpose which one seeks, I forge the form to achieve it.

A destiny melded together.

The sword leading us unto the end fate.

If one accepts this will, then answer me.

I hereby swear, I will be the blade that protects innocence, the hero that saves lives.

The one listening to my prayers, in my name I summon thee...

...ALLY OF JUSTICE!"

Bright blinding light fills the room in an eerie red, so intense that the humans must cover their precious eyes.

All except for Shirou Emiya, who was instead tolerating the burning pain coursing through his body. No, make that his entire soul and body. Like wind fanning the engulfing flames, his body is heating up as though he's being cooked alive.

His empty beginning flashes through his mind.

Fire. Rain. Screams. Silence. Ruins. Destruction. Begging. Cursing. Smoke. Night. Death. Ashes. Heat. Black. Darkness... Golden Light and Father.

Shirou feels as though his life was sucked out of him as he tightly grips chest with left hand and something scorching red is also carving itself out on the back of that hand. He is heavily gasping for air and dearly wishes that he could have some water right now.

The light in the room dies down as the magic circle loses its energy.

A commanding voice booms through out the shed.

"I ask of you: Are you my Master?"

Blinking strongly, the boy takes a look at the figure now before him.

Black and red; a woman stands tall and proud with her arms folded across her chest.

Her long waist-length hair is a faded pink that looks white and her stern eyes are shining gold; she has playful and boastful smile on her face. She is wearing dark blood red knightly armor that only protected her right arm, her hips, and her legs, while underneath the garments were of the color black. Her shirt is a long-sleeved crop top, the edges ragged and worn, giving a tantalizing view of the underside of her breasts. Her skirt was in much the same state, being very short and tattered, and she also seemed to be wearing thigh-high stockings.

Her features made her look Japanese but the fair tone of skin seemed to imply a more European descent and the aura she emitted also spoke of a regal-like bearing more akin to the West than the East.

Shirou barely coughs out his reply, "I... think so..." It was obvious to anyone here just how parched his throat was.

The red-haired boy could not stand any longer and his weak legs buckle beneath him.

The red-armored Servant steps forward and gently catches him, "Mm, I see that it took everything you had to summon me, my Master," though her eyes were locked squarely at the other girls and they flinched under her gaze. Rin and Luviagelita quickly hid their hands when they realized what the Servant was looking at, while Misaya simply smiled back.

Yet the woman ignores them and her sight trails to the open door where she spots Lancer swatting away flying swords.

"Hey, younger me, it looks liked you summoned a Servant! Good job!" the man praises.

"Mmh~" the newly summoned Servant hums, "To already have an alliance with three other Masters, you truly are impressive, my Master."

"C-Can I... get some... w-water...?" Shirou tiredly mumbles.

"In a moment, my Master," she looks back at the girls, "Perhaps I should get a bearing on my situation first, hm~?"

Rin steps forward and coughs into her fist, "Well, first off, we'd like to know your Class."

The woman grins, "I am Servant Saber."

"Just the Class we needed!" Lancer shouts by the door.

"Then here's the short version: All the Servants here are an alternate 'Shirou' existence, so every single one of you can use a magecraft called 'Tracing.' Outside Rider and Archer are keeping busy a very powerful Berserker from skewering us with all his traced swords, and, as you can see, Lancer is here to prevent that from happening."

Saber blinks in surprise before quietly giggling then bursting into a roaring laugh. She calms down after several minutes pass.

"This is an amusing situation," she states with a wider grin.

The Tohsaka Head's brow merely twitches, "We need your help to defeat Berserker."

"Is there a reason why you haven't targeted the Servant's Master?"

"No hurting... my step-sister..." Shirou groans out.

"...Is that so, my Master? You're a softy," the Servant of the Sword turns to Lancer, "My Master seems to be of indispose at the moment. Do you have anything within your arsenal that can drive back Berserker, oh Servant of the Spear?"

"Ah, well..." the black-clad Servant glances back at his young master.

While it was true that they were all 'Shirou' and could each use Tracing but it was also true that no two of them were exact copies, especially if Rider and Saber were women, so it stood to reason that each of them had weapons within their Reality Marble that were unique only to them.

It was one thing to fight an opponent that could neutralize their advantage of superior weaponry, it was another when the enemy could duplicate it and use it against you.

Lancer's ultimate goal was to prevent anyone from dying in the 5th Holy Grail War. But seeing as how this wasn't exactly as his universe, such as the fact that he had no idea who Misaya Reiroukan was or why Luviagelita Edelfelt was here years earlier than she should be or even why every Servant was 'Shirou,' then it meant that there could be other key factors that were entirely different than what he was used to.

It would do him no good to reveal his cards before settling things with the Masters. He was sure that he could convince Rin, Luviagelita, Misaya, Shirou, and Illyasviel from grabbing the Grail, but he wasn't so sure about the Masters of Caster, though in actuality it was Rider he didn't know, and Assassin. He also needed to know where Kirei Kotomine, or a similar enough manipulative bastard, fell into all of this.

In short, all these variables made Lancer uneasy.

Luckily his Master seems to recognized some of that, "How about we order all our Servants to attack him at once with a Noble Phantasm, hm~?"

Rin and Luviagelita narrow their eyes and calculate the risks.

With three Servants it was possible to push back Berserker, however the problem was that it would only occur painfully slowly. As it already was, their Servants were going to be running out of prana soon with all the Tracing they were doing; Berserker's weapons were all Traced Noble Phantasms whilst their Servants were toughing it out with Traced regular weapons meant to delay the piercing swords from striking a fatal hit. If they didn't bring Berserker down right now then they were all simply going to die.

"All or nothing, huh?" Rin huffs.

"It is our only choice, I suppose," Luviagelita adds.

However the twin-tailed girl glares at Saber, "And you?"

"I will be in charge of protecting you all, of course," she smiles, "Or would you prefer me to use a Noble Phantasm and kill my Master by sucking him dry?"

The Tohsaka Head flinches at the accusation and growls, "No, I wouldn't."

"Good, then let us turn the tide of battle," Saber announces with a confident grin.

'_Shit, another Reiroukan_,' Rin curses to herself.

[...]

Illyasviel was pleased by how amazing her mysterious Servant was at being able to pressure three Servants into the defense without tiring. Granted, she was providing most of the prana for his ability that Berserker was using as destructively as possible.

However, she did wonder every so often what his real identity truly was. Illyasviel had already ascertain that Berserker's skill-set did not resemble anything from Heracle's legend, so she was quite aware that she did not summon the famed Greek Hero.

Still, unfortunately though, because of his high grade Mad Enhancement [B], Berserker was unable to speak. So the girl simply couldn't get a direct answer from him. She supposed that she could use a Command Seal to temporarily warp reality but that was such a waste and she wasn't that curious about his identity.

'_I wonder how Heracles would fare against him~_'

Indeed, she did not believe that she summoned a Heroic Spirit any inferior to the mighty Hero of Greece and it would have been quite a fight to see. After all, it was such a rare opportunity, almost once in a life-time, to witness heroes of old battle for supremacy in the modern age.

Speaking of heroes, she was intensely intrigued and curious about who the enemy Servants were. It seemed that all three of them possessed skills similar to her Berserker but she couldn't tell what Class they were.

She had pegged one as Lancer, since the black-clad man preferred spears, but the blue-dressed woman and the red-cloaked man were much harder to figure out as both were using swords as their preferred weapon.

'_Saber and Archer?_'

Those were the two most likely candidates. Saber for obvious reasons and Archer because it was a part of the Knight Trio consisting of Saber, Lancer, and Archer. Barring her Berserker, those were the only Classes that could excel in fighting close-quarter-combat properly. Assassin and Rider were also choices, but the former relied on stealth to kill and the latter's worth were in their powerful Noble Phantasm; both Classes weren't designed for close-quarters like the other four were. And Caster? Definitely not, that would be silly.

Not that any of that mattered to Illyasviel once she was finished with them anyways.

It was as clear as day and night that Saber, Archer, and Lancer could not beat Berserker in a straight fight, so the only Servants she had to worry about now was Assassin and Caster for their technical worth. She wasn't afraid of whatever Noble Phantasm Rider possessed and even Assassin would soon cease to be a problem once Berserker dealt with the Knight Trio, for the Servant of the Madness would always stand guard by the little girl's side.

No, the only threat to her victory was Caster. A Servant that had magecraft ages, literal ages, beyond modern spells, and depending on what type of magecraft they specialized in, then it was possible for Caster to outright kill or disable Berserker.

Luckily there was a severe penalty to Caster. The more powerful the magic, the longer it takes to set-up. Also, because the prana required was more than what modern magus could give, it was necessary for Caster to hole-up in an area that was the closest to the ley-lines. In short, it would be far too easy to pin-point Caster's hide-out and then snuff them out before the war progresses too far.

'_A week_,' she muses.

After Illyasviel finishes cleaning up here, it would probably take no more than a week for her to track down the Servant of the Spells and end their life. And then after that, probably no more than an another additional week, for her to smoke out Assassin and Rider.

Illyasviel outwardly giggles, the Grail was so close at hand now. Victory was practically hers, that creepy priest might as well name her the winner already.

'_So what are you up to big brother~?_'

At the start of the encounter Berserker had sent a storm of blades that the other Servants barely deflected away. When he rushed forward he was intercepted by Lancer and the red-cloaked Servant while the blue-dressed woman stayed behind to protect their Masters from the skewering blades that the previous two Servants couldn't prevent from slipping past their defenses.

The three hags and her big brother were talking about something but were shouting every so often, most of them coming from the twin-tail. After awhile the woman Servant switched places with Lancer who became the new shouting idiot and then the group proceeded to the lone shed in the backyard.

Illyasviel correctly guessed that it was Shirou Emiya's workshop. Was he going to bring a tool that could save them? Unlikely, if not impossible. No, he was going to summon a Servant from prying eyes, it couldn't be anything but that.

Though, the young Einzbern did find it strange that her step-brother did not already have a Servant.

It was only after the 4th Holy Grail War when she was informed about the identity of her father, Kiritsugu Emiya, The Magus Killer, by her stern grandfather. Keen, Tactical, Unconventional, those were the words a person would describe him with. When she was told that her father had adopted a boy near her age, a one Shirou Emiya, and abandoned her after the 4th Holy Grail War, Illyasviel was not only furious but utterly heart-broken as well.

Why did her father abandon her? What talents did Shirou Emiya have that made their father take him under his wing? Illyasviel's interests were conflicted; she did not want to know for the truth could be even harsher than she imagined, yet she still was curious enough to seek out the answer regardless of the consequences.

And right now... she could not see a even a hint of those words at all. The boy did not resemble what she had imagine a person to be under the training of The Magus Killer. Naive and Idiot; those are the words she would describe him with based on his introduction alone. He simply didn't have the air of a Magus or a Killer about him.

But she wasn't wrong, this person was the Shirou Emiya she was looking for. So why didn't she receive an answer yet?

'_Mmh?_'

An intense red light flashes from the open door of the shed.

That could only mean one thing and Illyasviel smiles.

"So you've finally summon a Servant, big brother~?" she chirps to no one in particular but herself, "Good, it would have been really boring if I didn't crush you at your best! So let's play some more, big brother~!"

[...]

Lancer jumps into the fray of flying swords to assist Caster and Archer.

"Good news?" Caster asks.

"Younger me," Archer twitches at hearing those words come out of Lancer's mouth, "has summoned Saber. The plan now is to eliminate Berserker with our Noble Phantasms all at once."

"We will need to do that in turns," she states.

"You should be last, right? Noble Phantasms are your specialty isn't it, Rider? Then I'll go first and Archer second."

Caster hums, "Well, I do not believe that I'll be giving it my very best."

Lancer snorts, "Yeah, I know what you mean."

Archer was trying to stay out of the conversation as much as possible. Swearing that he would kill Lancer eventually.

Caster closes in from the left and Archer from the right; Lancer is in the middle behind them, protected from the wave of swords. Berserker charges in but is stopped by the Servant of the Spells and the Servant of the Bow.

Within Lancer's hand was a materialized spear that looks like a drill and its color were a dull gray with pale gold and blue trims. One. That was all he could afford to use without draining himself to a dangerous limit.

Caladbolg, the spear wielded by Fergus mac Roich with the power to destroy three hill-tops. Simple and easy to use, nothing flashy at all, a weapon meant to pierce and destroy. It would be a nice Noble Phantasm to open up a hole in Berserker's defense.

Prana flows in the spear. Its form distorts and elongates sinisterly. It breaks and cracks as it times quickly draws to an end.

Broken Phantasm; a technique to pump prana into a Noble Phantasm to make it one grade higher but irrevocably destroying it beyond repair. Though not a problem for a man who could Trace new ones indefinitely.

Archer and Caster sense the build-up of energy behind and they both can easily imagine what Lancer plans to do.

"CALAD...!"

The calling of the name; a requirement to unlock the proper use of a Noble Phantasm. And also the signal of their counterattack.

Swiftly the blue and red pair time their move together. Berserker strikes again, mighty and strong, almost crushing the pair into the ground, but they allow the attack to slide pass them and then break off out of Lancer's line of sight to reveal Berserker dead center for the coming attack.

A moment, that was all that was needed.

"...BOLG!"

The spiral spear leaves his hand and flies straight at Berserker, his Traced blades incapable of impeding the weapon's path, his hands unable to stop the spear from piercing just below his heart, and then Caladbolg explodes.

Smoke covers the grassy yard but there is no hesitation, no waiting, Archer is already on the offensive. In his hands is a bow and arrow in accord. The bow is nothing special to speak of but the arrow was of worthy praise. Twisted metal that seemed to be haphazardly made, this 'arrow's' name was Hrunting, the sword once held by Beowolf.

"Hrunting," the red-cloaked Servant states. The arrow flies from his bow, a red streak in the night, and explodes within an instant once it hounds and strikes its target in the smoke.

A single sword floats in the air next to Caster. Large and unruly and red. This blade was known as Balmung, famous for killing the dragon Fafnir.

"Balmung," she coolly declares and, as the blade soars through the air, it makes a sound as though the weapon itself was a dragon hungering for prey. It disappears into the smoke and also explodes in a furious roar.

Silence seeps into the surrounding air but that does not last long.

The melody of metal scraping against metal in a haunting symphony sounds from within the uplifted dust cover.

Lancer cringes at the noise as he takes several steps back, "Shit, you gotta be kidding me, don't tell me that's...!"

Caster and Archer follow the Servant of the Spear's lead and peer into the retreating smoke and see the hazy silhouette of Berserker's form. Shambling like a dead man, the Servant of the Madness was strangely quiet.

And then they could see why.

Blades. Blades. Blades. Blades. Blades. Blades. Blades. Blades. Blades. Blades.

From his exposed flesh, from sections of his body that no longer existed, the seams of his wounds are knitted together by interlocking blades. Berserker should be dead but he is not. For a blade does not die, it merely cracks or breaks and is then reforge anew.

[...]

"His body is made of swords," Saber answers in a matter-of-fact tone whilst standing guard with her arms crossed.

The tired Shirou Emiya was lying on Luviagelita's lap.

Being far away from the battle, the Masters could not properly see what had become of Illyasviel's Servant. When they saw him standing after that immense triple Noble Phantasm barrage, they immediately questioned how he could still be alive.

"What. The. Hell." Rin grinds out.

"A body... made... of swords?" Shirou mutters. It sounded so wrong yet so right. So unbelievable yet so normal. Perhaps it was dehydration thinking; he could really use some water now.

"I wonder," Misaya says with a wry smile on her face, "What could make Emiya become like that."

"Shirou will not become like that... _thing_," Luviagelita almost spat out, '_Not my Shirou._'

And then a loud cry screams out.

[...]

"BERSERKER! BERSERKER! BERSERKER!" Illyasviel cries out to her Servant, tears flowing freely down her face, sending powerful surges of prana to recover his ruined body.

No, her Berserker could not die, he just couldn't, she would not let that happen. She would not be left alone again!

Before she knew it, the Servant of the Madness was already besides her, kneeling at her eye-level, as though to say he was okay.

She sniffles, "T-Thank god you're alive, Berserker!" To survive those kind of attacks, it was nothing short of a miracle.

"H-Home, we're going home!" she hoarsely demands.

Slowly her black Servant cradles her in a princess carry, making sure to keep her away from his sharpened sword-stitched body. He takes a final glance at his opponents, all of them watching him warily but none wishing to make a move on him, and quietly he turns away and escapes.

And thus the battle was over.

[...]

The tension quickly disappears when the presence of the Servant of the Madness vanishes far away from their location. A great sense of relief fills them.

"I guess it's time for me to take my leave now," Misaya casually says to the group as she walks toward the house to retrieve her coat and boots.

"...Leaving...?" Shirou questions.

"Wait, you're just going to walk away, Reiroukan?" Rin snaps.

"Hm, Tohsaka? I'll honor our truce for tonight, but after that we're enemies. The war would be pretty boring if four Masters joined together after all," she takes a step away, "I'll see you all next time then. Tohsaka, Edelfelt, Emiya~" the raven-haired girl answers without looking back, "Lancer, we're leaving."

The Servant of the Spear looked conflicted for but a moment, "As you wish, Master," he says whilst giving a light nod to Saber and then turns into Spirit Form.

Saber chuckles at the gesture and thinks, '_Of course, I'll protect my Master. That isn't even something that needs to be asked._' She walks back to pick up Shirou's body off his disappointed lap-pillow. "Now then, I believe it's safe enough to get you water, my Master."

"...Finally..." he mumbles in relief.

Brushing her blue dress, Luviagelita gets up, "Then I shall also take my leave tonight," she bows to Shirou who barely registered the action, "Along with Tohsaka," she adds in.

"Hey, don't decide for me, Edelfelt," the twin-tail glares at her rival.

"It's been a long night for all of us, Tohsaka. Don't test me."

Rin merely huffs to agree. She was a bit too tired to keep the usual banter going. Tonight was one heck of an unusual night.

"Well then, farewell," Luviagelita bows once more, "Thank you for the wonderful meal, Emiya. I'll make sure to repay the favor," and walks into the house to get her boots, "Servant."

Caster glances at Archer before dismissing him, "Coming, Master," she says before turning into Spirit Form.

"Emiya," Rin calls to the boy, "we're going to have a long talk at school tomorrow. Be ready for it," she jabs a finger in his direction.

Shirou just groans. Whether it was acceptance or an actual groan, the Tohsaka Head could not tell.

"Archer, we're leaving. Come on."

The Servant of the Bow seemed like he wanted to scowl but turns into Spirit Form and disappears without a word.

Now it was just Saber and her Master left at the Emiya Estate.

[...]

"So are you 'Shirou' too, Assassin?" Manaka Sajyou asks her Servant. A faint smile was present on her ever serene and peaceful expression.

"...That is so, Master Manaka,' the black-cloaked Servant answers.

This Master and Servant pair are sitting down on a nearby roof-top, having spied on the battle between Berserker and the other Servants; Assassin's superbly Reinforced eyes and ears relaying the battle for her with short and concise words.

Originally Manaka Sajyou had wanted to kill some people to get a proper assessment of her Assassin's shadowy skills but the Servant had adamantly refused such an action. He stated, that as a man raised by the church and its teaching, he could not harm those that did not warrant it; for him, his only targets were the inhuman Heroic Spirits participating in the 5th Holy Grail War and perhaps a few more unscrupulous individuals should the chance provide itself.

The girl merely accepted his principles without a fuss and instead asked what he wanted to do, to which, "...Observe the other Masters and Servants," he had answered.

It was then almost immediately that the pair discovered a pleasant surprise: four Servants were already heavily engaged against each other and just several blocks away from them. So the pair quickly took up position on a house next to the Emiya residence to watch battle unfold.

"Rin Tohsaka. Luvigaelita Edelfelt. Misaya Reiroukan," Manaka listed out the names of her fellow schoolmate like reading out a book, "Shirou Emiya?" it was only his name she had said with a sense of puzzle and a tilt of her head.

She was a bit surprised that five of the seven contestants, including herself, were just teenagers, all attending the same school no less. It was a comedic coincidence, one could say.

'_Well, it'll be the school's problems when they die_,' she reasons calmly to herself.

Though, the Student Janitor, as he was known, was rather peculiar to her.

A boy raised by a magus but had none of the traits. A boy raised by a killer but had none of the skills. A boy that was out-going and kind. Neither boring nor interesting, just an oddity within the realms of normality.

Yes, Peculiar. It was an appropriate choice of word to describe Shirou Emiya in Manaka's opinion. But now, perhaps, he was a bit more than that. An existence deeply ingrained into the 5th Holy Grail War, an existence called forth seven times over, an existence worth an aged mystery.

Manaka Sajyou asks, "Then is this world your past, Assassin?"

"...No," the stoic man answers.

The boy, Shirou Emiya, did in fact resemble what Assassin once looked like as a teen, but that was all, the two of them were too different in their history. One was the adopted son of Kiritsugu Emiya and the other was the adopted son of Kirei Kotomine; people who were rivals with one another in the 4th Holy Grail War.

It was strange for Assassin to know that in another world his circumstances were so entirely unaligned. Yet he did not seem to mind the fact that he was also a woman in other continuities; in fact he chose to ignore such a thing and did not dwell upon it.

"Thinking?"

"...Yes."

"Let's go home then, Assassin," the blond-haired girl says. She stands up and puts forward a hand.

"...Very well," the Servant obliges with a gentle grasp.

[...]

"How do you feel now, my Master?"

"Like a cooked beef that was glazed over with sweet sauce and then stabbed with a skewer."

Shirou Emiya and his Servant Saber were inside his home sitting on opposite sides of the living room table. An empty cup sat on top of the table near Shirou while a jug of water was next to Saber. There was really no time for serve tea, as far as either were concerned.

The red-haired teen was dead tire but at the same time his body and soul were heavily protesting to the torment it just went through, so his mind was fully awake. He wanted to go to sleep but just couldn't. As though he had an itch he couldn't scratch that was nagging his entire being.

It didn't particularly help that he also occasionally spasmed or jolted stiff from a sudden pain spiking through his body.

Saber though was not wearing the armor and tattered clothing she was summoned in. Instead, she was dressed in rather normal clothing: a white long-sleeved dress shirt over a short red skirt and black thigh-high stockings.

"As long as you're alive, my Master, then all is well."

Shirou winces, 'my Master' was said without a hint a mocking or servitude. Like a noble speaking with absolute respect to one, not of their better, but of their equal.

"Can you stop calling me that? Just call me 'Shirou.' Ah," he realizes something, "I haven't even introduced myself. I'm Shirou, Shirou Emiya," and bows his head lightly.

"And I am Servant Saber," the whitish-pink-haired woman states, "A pleasure to meet you, Shirou."

The boy was glad that she using his name, though, "Um, Saber? Do you have a less weird name for me to call you by?"

"King of Fakers," she answers proudly.

"No, wait, that name is even weirder than 'Saber'! Rather, that's not even a name, that's a title! Huh, wait, 'King'?"

"Something the matter, Shirou?"

"But aren't you a woman?" her previously almost visible breasts were a good hint.

"I knew a King of Knights and she was a woman. To be a king has nothing to do with gender, Shirou."

"Okay...?" the boy quirks a brow, "But a name, do you have a normal one? I mean... you are... 'me,' right?"

"I didn't know you wished to be a woman, Shirou."

"...What? NO! Stop that!" Shirou narrows his eyes at seeing his giggling Servant, "Wait a second, you're doing this on purpose aren't you?!" he coughs.

Saber lets loose her laughter and continues for two minutes straight before stopping. Afterward, she pours him another cup of water which he gulps down in one sitting.

"T-Thanks."

"Mmh, a name is a powerful thing for us Servants, Shirou. It is our identity and our legend manifested in words. To reveal it in this war is to let our enemies known of our abilities," she snorts, "Though I suppose it does not matter in a war where our legends have yet to come to pass nor is native to this world at all," she smirks, "But, if you must know, Shirou, then my name is Shiroko."

"Shiroko..." the boy tastes the name on his tongue, "No family name?"

"No, not anymore," she states casually, "I renounced it a long time ago."

"R-Renounced?"

"Interested in hearing my past, Shirou? Heh, you'll just have to wait until the Dream Cycles then."

"I'm going to see it in my dreams?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

"Okay... So, um, Shiroko, can you tell me more about this war thing that's going on?"

His Servant looks at him puzzlingly, "Do you not know of the Grail War, Shirou?"

The boy scratches his cheek, "Tohsaka gave me the short-version but I didn't hear anything about the Holy Grail being involved."

Saber laughs some more before answering.

"Ah, it seems my Master is hopeless. Where to begin now? Mmh~? Yes, allow I to first explain what this war is all about. Seven magi are chosen by the Grail to become Masters and from there they each summon a Servant, a Heroic Spirit, to fight for them, their prize is the wishing-granting artifact, the Grail; which is not the same Holy Grail that Christ drank from.

So do you understand, Shirou, why others are willing to risk their lives for such an artifact?"

The boy magus nods.

"Good, then do you know what a Servant is?"

He licks his lips and slowly answers, "I want to say that it's some kind of Familiar but I've never heard of one that was human-shaped before. Or of Familiars stronger than their Master... or being from the future either..."

"Hmm," Saber hums, "Well then, Shirou, you can consider a Servant to be a special kind of Ghost, but to understand that then you must know what a Heroic Spirit is."

"Is a Heroic Spirit different from a Servant? Didn't you say that Servants are Heroic Spirits?" the boy looked confused, or perhaps that was from a spasm. His Servant pours him a glass of water which he slowly drinks.

"A Heroic Spirit is a person that has transcended time and space; they are a legend that has been recorded into the Throne of Heroes. Figures such as King Arthur, Medusa, Gilgamesh, Heracles, and so forth are perfectly stored in that place."

Shirou quirks a brow, "Medusa? She's a hero?"

The Servant of the Sword laughs, "Ah, so you've notice, my Master? Yes, that's correct; Medusa the Greek Gorgon, Hassan-i-Sabbah of the Hashshashin, Jack the Ripper, Medea the Witch of Colchis, Tamamo-no-Mae the Imperial Nogitsune, Vlad III the Devil Impaler... even legends such as these are recorded in the place known as the Throne of Heroes as Heroic Spirits."

"That... That doesn't make any sense at all! You can't call those kind of people heroes!"

Saber grins, "Well, to say the least, it's more accurate to say that the Throne of Heroes is a place that stores all known legends and unique existences for the sake of keeping a perfect record of them. Anyways, back to the point, Shirou, a Heroic Spirit is essentially someone with a legend."

The boy frowns. How could such people be called 'Heroes'? He feels offended for some reason.

"As such, because of their own power and their very location, the summoning of a Heroic Spirit to the mortal plane is an absolute impossibility for any magus today. At best, a magi will call forth a copy sent out by the Throne of Heroes and even that will only possess a fraction of their true strength."

Shirou's mind whirls, "A copy... you mean... like a Servant?"

"That is correct, my Master. That is what a Servant is," she brushes aside her hair, "But even though we are mere copies of the original soul, we retain a sense of self; all of our knowledge, all of our history, all of regrets, and all of dreams. It is not only the Master who seek out the Grail but also the Servants as well.

So understand, my Master, that those chosen to be Masters and those summoned as Servants, they all desire and they all wish; whether they accept it or not, the Grail has answered their call and, indirectly or directly, their wishes can or have already been granted."

The boy's mouth goes dry. He could feel his Servant's eyes looking deep into him; examining for what he was and what he is. She was implying something about him but either his mind couldn't properly think or it was simply refusing to think, so a blaring pain pounds at his thoughts.

"Shiroko... what are you trying to say?" he asks with an tensed edge.

Her lips curl devilishly, her face was angelic yet so twisted, "Rejoice, my Master, for your wish shall be granted," her voice was clear to him and echoes in his head.

Blackness. The cover of darkness blankets Shirou Emiya's mind.

"What did you say...?" he responds flatly.

"Hm, did I say something, Shirou?"

Shirou blinks and rubs his eyes. The tension he felt had disappeared and everything was back to normal. His cup was filled with water and Saber was looking at him slightly puzzled. Though he oddly felt that Saber was somehow a smidge disappointed in him.

"Ah, no, it's nothing," he apologizes as meekly grabs the cup, '_What kind of illusion was that?_'

The Servant hums, "Well, continuing on, because of that, the relations between a Master and Servant is about mutual benefits: the Master provides the prana and the link for a Servant to exist in the material world, whilst the Servant serves as the link for the Master to attain the Grail."

The boy does not interrupt and so she continues, "Of course, not every partnership is appreciated. A Master may receive a disobedient hero or a Servant may find themselves under a detestable Master. What is to keep the two from disbanding and replacing the other?

Think about it like this, Shirou, who do you think would win: a Master or a Servant?"

He recalls the fight between Berserker and the intense fight between rest. It was obvious that most magus, not that he's really got any to compare to, would get torn to pieces if they tried to intervene; all the more so if Heroic Spirits were legendary figures.

"The Servants," he answers firmly.

"That's right: Servants. Even the weakest of Servants are at least ten times stronger than your ordinary human. So what's to stop a Servant from killing their Master?"

"...Some kind of geas or contract?"

Saber points to her Master's left hand, "And that would be the Command Seals. They are, practically speaking, three absolute orders within the realms of reality that a Servant can achieve."

The boy examines the back of his left hand, on it is a red emblem that resembles a sword. "Absolute? Such as?"

"A command such as 'Defeat the enemy' will give a Servant enough power to overwhelm a foe, 'Return and protect' and a Servant can rip a hole through time and space to find themselves at the side of their Masters, or perhaps 'Never disobey me' and a Servant cannot refute orders asked of them.

The Command Seals are both tools for a Master to protect themselves from danger, outside or otherwise, and to turn the tide of battle. The more specific a command is then the greater the effects, the more general it is then the weaker the effects. Though the power of a magus and the will of the Servant can also effect the strength of the command.

In other words, the Command Seal is the last resort that a Master can fall upon."

"...Tear through time and space... Isn't that like True Magic? Is that really even possible?"

"Similar but not quite. As you know, or should, my Master, if you're not a terribly un-informed magus, that True Magic is essentially everything that cannot be reproduced by technology. To go from Point A to Point B would be as simple as walking, riding a bike, or driving a car."

"Eh, but tearing through time and space...!"

"The scale and complexity may be larger but the end result is largely mundane, Shirou. That's simply how it is."

The third-rate magus wanted to argue back but a spasm twitches him into submission. Saber pours him another cup of water.

"Now then, there are only three rules to this war. First, is that the entirety of the war shall only take place within the boundaries of Fuyuki City and nowhere else. Second, is that magic must not be revealed to the normal denizens, thus most of the war will be conducted during the night. Third, there are no other rules, as long as first two are obeyed then everything is fair in the war."

Shirou slowly drinks his glass, "So the second rule prevents innocent being from harm..."

"That is not necessarily true, Shirou," The Servant of the Sword states quickly and sternly, "Whether they are caught in the crossfire, encounter or targeted by less than savory Masters or Servants in the war, or witness things they should have not seen; it is always a possibility that those uninvolved may find themselves killed."

"Oh," he utters remembering Misaya Reiroukan's word of terminating him. He narrows his eyes and straightens his face, he has already quickly made his decision, "Then I will fight in this war to prevent everybody people from dying."

Saber smirks, "A most noble goal, my Master. You don't have any intent to take the Grail for yourself, do you?"

The boy suppresses the urge to wince at a jolt, and chuckles, "Well I don't have a wish. Ah, maybe I do, but I want to achieve it with my own hands, so I don't need something like the Grail."

"My, what a honorable Master I have. I think you would have gotten long well with Arturia."

'_Hm? Did she just cheer up now?_'

"Arturia?"

"When I was alive, I was also a Master in the Fifth Grail War and my Servant was Saber; Her name was Arturia Pendragon, the King of Knights."

"O-Oh... Hm, hey, Shiroko, so do you have a wish for the Holy Grail?"

"...That would depend on if the Grail is what I think it is. Though there is a possibility that it is not the same as mines."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I shall inform you when I figure it out, Shirou. But, tell me this, was there ever a Great Fuyuki Fire?"

Shirou shivers at his earliest memories, "Yeah, about ten years ago."

The Servant thinks for a few moments and then speaks, "I see... but for now, I have no wish. Perhaps I shall find one later."

"If you say," Shirou says as he pushes his cup forward; his Servant filling the glass and passing it back. He drinks it down, "Ah~ I'm definitely feeling much better now."

The Servant of the Sword looks up to the clock that hanged on the wall by the kitchen door. The time was almost midnight.

"Then perhaps it's time we head for bed, Shirou."

"R-Right," he yawns. The wracking pain all over his body was slowly disappearing.

Walking up to the second floor of his huge old-style Japanese home, Shirou opens to the door his room and then stops.

"Ah, that's right, Shiroko, you can sleep in the room over there," he points to the room parallel to his, "Don't worry, I live alone so all the rooms here are free."

"Shirou," Saber calls, "You have had the unusual luck of meeting four Servants besides myself today and survived. I wouldn't be surprise if you met Caster and Assassin in your sleep before the day is over."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"I shall be staying in your room to stand guard."

"W-What?! No! Girls and boys can't sleep in the same room together!"

"I am a Servant, my Master. Sleep is not a necessity for me as it is for you. Besides, only you will be sleeping. Or perhaps you do not want to sleep tonight, Shirou~?"

The young teenage boy turns crimson red at her tone, '_I need a way to get out of this! Something! Anything!_' His eyes dart at everything until, "Ah," it settles on his left hand.

But a sword brushes pass his face before he could even blink.

"Hm? Was my Master going to do something foolish just now?" she says with a innocent looking smile, "Surely he is not that much of an idiot as he looks?"

"...Come in, I'm sorry if my room is a mess," Shirou says politely and meekly.

[...]

Morning arrives and the young Shirou Emiya feebly wakes up from bed with a loud yawn. Though his body was feeling much better than last night, it was still recovering and aching a great deal and it seems because of that he woke up much later than he was used to.

Lazily scratching his belly, the teen gets out of his bed and looks around the room. He didn't see his Servant around. Did she go into Spirit Form? He wasn't sure.

"Shiroko, you here?" but he didn't get an answer.

Exiting his room, he hears a loud shout coming from the lower floor, it sounded like his guardian, Taiga Fujimura.

Crud, he forgot that she, and Sakura Matou, almost always visit his home in the morning.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN SHIROU'S HOME?!"

'_Think fast, Shirou Emiya_,' the boy thinks, '_I need an excuse to hide Shiroko from Teacher Fujimura and Sakura._'

"AND WHY ARE YOU WALKING AROUND IN YOUR UNDERWEAR?!"

'_...Fuck._'

* * *

**Author Notes**

What does 'crack' mean? Is it 'crack' as in 'funny' or 'crack' as in 'doesn't need to make sense'? Because I honestly believe it's the latter. So feel free to point out 'mistakes,' just because this is 'crack' doesn't mean I don't like learning about canon.

Damn it, why is these chapters so long? I wasn't possessed by 'inspiration,' I was possessed by 'boredom.' But, no really, I have other stories that need my attentions. Crud, I need to stop getting distracted.

Why am I doing a 'previously' section? What is this, a bad TV show with a convoluted plot?

Also, all the Servants are officially here now! Saber, Lancer, Berserker, Caster, Rider, Assassin, Saver, and Avenger! The 5th Holy Grail War begins now!

I want to mention that the original outline was different. Saber was originally going to be Ruler; so there would have been 10 Heroic Spirits instead of 9. And they (Saber and Ruler) would have been separate characters: Original Saber would have been a more conventional Shirou Emiya raised by Kiritsugu Emiya and Maiya Hisau and uses a sword-and-shield combo. But then I was like, 'Not crazy enough,' so I decided to scrap the Ruler thing and then replace Original Saber with Ruler. Um, yeah.

Also, the cabin magus would have gotten Avenger and Bazett would have Saver. But then I switched it around.

Why am I having such a difficult time finding what summoning chants are used to call forth Servants? A written one preferably. Why? Just why? Okay, let's make one up and roll with that...

I really want to reveal the Servant's background through pieces of dialogue or thoughts. Dream Cycle on occassions; I don't want to show it all off in the Author Notes.

However, I do think Lancer's situation deserves some explanation... and that is the fact that he comes from a world where Lancer's are the top dog, not Saber. So most sword-heroes are pole-arm users in his world, for example King Arthur would have been a user of the spear and not a sword-master and Excalibur would have been spear and not a sword. So the Noble Phantasm he used; Caladbolg, Fergus mac Roich's weapon, is a spear in his world. Yeah, that's alternate realities for you!

Oh god, the dialogue with Shirou and Saber at the end, I changed that so many times. So many freaking times.

_[Rewritten and uploaded on 11/6/12]_


	3. Average Day In The Life Of Shirou Emiya

**Fate Shirou**

Chapter Three

_The Peaceful Time Of Planning, Plotting, Playing, And Personal Life!_

_[AVERAGE DAY IN THE LIFE OF SHIROU EMIYA]_

* * *

**Previously on Fate Shirou:** _Here They Are, Grail Of Wishes. Do You Have Enough Shirou?_

The battle between Berserker against Archer, Lancer, and Caster rages on!

Meanwhile, an unnamed magus from the Mage's Association and Saver lie waiting on the outskirts of Fuyuki City, Bazett Fraga McRemitz summons Avenger, Kirei Kotomine is not as neutral as he seems, and Shirou Emiya summons the strongest Servant: Saber!

The Servants unleash Broken Phantasm against Berserker; Lancer unleashes Caladbolg, Archer shoots Hrunting, and Caster brings out Balmung, but Berserker survives with his body of swords and escapes with his master Illyasviel von Einzbern!

The temporary alliance between Rin Tohsaka, Luviagelita Edelfelt, Misaya Reiroukan, and Shirou Emiya is over and everybody returns homes!

But throughout the fight, Manaka Sajyou and her Servant Assassin have been secretly observing the fierce battle!

Shirou Emiya has a chat with Saber about the Grail War!

And finally morning arrives and Taiga Fujimura screams at a undergarment roaming Saber!

**This time on Fate Shirou:** _The Peaceful Time Of Planning, Plotting, Playing, And Personal Life!_

* * *

Rewinding time to the moments before, yesterday of night, just after the retreat of the injured Berserker, we find the Masters and Servants conversing with their partner.

[...]

Misaya Reiroukan strolls down the empty streets with the Servant of the Spear in tow as she heads home. She was the type of person to keep a smug smile on her face but this time she was merely looking bored or uninterested.

"Master, is this such a wise choice?" Lancer asks out of concern.

"Hm? Do you have a problem with my decision, Lancer?"

"I do," he answers firmly.

"Feel free to explain then, Lancer," she lightly says, as though her mind was elsewhere.

"Master, it may be presumptuous of me to assume, but you do not desire the Grail, correct?"

"Mmh, that's right. I don't really care about the Grail," the girl hums.

"Then why are you in this war?"

"Because I thought it would be a nice way to kill some time."

"Then you would not mind if I'm allowed to do things my way and on my own?"

She sighs, "Boring, how boring. I already know what you plan to do since you're _that_ type of hero," she briefly pauses, "Lancer, entertain me~"

"And how do you expect me to do that, Master?"

She smiles, "Tell me your life story, Lancer. I promise I won't get bored or fall asleep half-way through~"

The black-clad Servant wryly smiles, '_Your personality is horrible_,' he thinks, "It's a long story, Master, and you need your rest. I'll tell you about it tomorrow after school."

Misaya yawns, "I suppose that's fine."

"...You aren't thinking of skipping school, are you, Master?"

"Oh~? How did you guess?" she grins as she half-faces him.

"Please go to school, Master. At least enjoy your days of youth. My life story can come after."

"Alright, alright~" the raven-haired girl suddenly stops in her track, "Lancer, carry me home~"

"...As you wish, Master," the Servant materializes into Physical Form to pick up his young Master in a princess-cradle.

"I'll be going to sleep now, Lancer," the girl says as she snuggles closer, "Tuck me into bed when we get back."

The Servant of the Spear sighs, "What a willful Master I have," and leaps back to the Reiroukan manor.

[...]

With grace Luviagelita Edelfelt travels the streets with her unseen guardian.

"Is something the matter, Master?" Caster asks.

The blond beauty sighs, "I'm worried."

"About the boy?"

Luviagelita coughs daintily into her fist, "Yes, about Shirou. He's too kind for the Holy Grail War. With that manipulative Tohsaka and that harpy Reiroukan lurking around he's going to be played around like a rag doll and then toss away when they're done with him! So it's up to me to protect his innocence!"

"I see, you are very territorial, Master. Just as a magus should be."

"You... what are you implying, Caster?" the teen lightly frowns.

"That the boy is precious to you, Master."

"A-Ah, yes. Yes, he is."

"You should mark him then, Master."

"M-M-Mark? W-What? You... what are you saying?!"

"Hm, no? Then is Master the passive type? Are you waiting for the boy to mark you instead?"

Luviagelita burns bright red, "Vulgar! How vulgar of you, Caster!"

"I see, Master is a pure maiden. Please do not be disappointed when reality strikes or you will find your expectations falling short."

"Caster, you...! Are you teasing me?!"

[...]

Rin Tohsaka is the last to leave the Emiya Residence and sees no sign of Misaya Reiroukan nor Luviagelita Edelfelt on the streets. That was good, she needed to speak with her Servant in private.

"Archer," she calls out coolly, "Have you regained your memories?"

"...Some of it," the red-clad man answers.

"Then do you recall if this world is your past or not?"

"I cannot say." Though he truth, it was more like he could not admit it.

"I see," the girl affirms to herself, '_This is the worst case scenario. I'm at a disadvantage if my Servant can't remember everything about himself._' The Tohsaka Head had already accepted that Archer was a variant of 'Shirou' as a fact, "Then do you remember how to use your Reality Marble?"

"Yeah, I do."

'_Well, that's something to work with_,' she thinks, "Good," she pauses as she realizes something, "Hm, oh, by the way, Archer."

"What is it, Rin?"

"Clean up the house."

"...What?"

"Do you not remember falling through floors of my home and breaking things down along with you, Archer?"

"No, I do not, Rin. I recalled being summon in a location that was not the proper summoning circle."

"You... will I have to use a Command Seal to get you to work, Archer?" the twin-girl says in a somewhat threatening manner.

"Wait, hold on, you can't be serious. Using it for something like that would be stupid, Rin."

"..."

"Hey, stop! Fine, I'll clean the house. So stop thinking of using a Command Seal already and calm down."

"Good, that's what I wanted to hear. Have everything cleaned up by the time I wake up in the morning, Archer. Also, prepare tea for me."

"Has anybody told you that you're a slave-driver, Rin?"

Rin Tohsaka merely huffs with a pleasant smile on her face.

[...]

Bazett Fraga McRemitz had many bases in Fuyuki City. Right now, she and her Servant Avenger were at the safe-house closest to the Kotomine Church.

'_Who is she?_' the older woman thinks. The attributes of her Servant did not strike her as recognizable from anywhere. The tone of her skin would place Avenger as of European nature, and her black hair, and red and golden eyes would imply a history of witchcraft or something similar.

However, this magus killer could not recall a legend that had a young witch with red and golden eyes that didn't hate church-aesthetics.

Truly, her Servant was lying sprawled on the floor with a carefree smile on her face, looking absolutely comfortable wearing that female church robe.

"Avenger, can you tell me your name?"

"My name has no meaning in this world, Master. You won't be able to find my legend no matter how hard you search~"

The woman knit her brows in contemplation, "Alright, then what are your skills and abilities? How do you fight? Strength and weaknesses?"

"Mmh~ My only talent lies in Projection of swords and I prefer to fight from afar. As for my strength and weaknesses... hm~ There is no defense that I cannot overcome but the cost for such an offensive power is far more prana than what even a Berserker Class would drain~"

"So you're not meant for direct or long battles," Bazett licks her lips as she thinks. She had developed plans for a Lancer, Caster, or Berserker Cu Chulainn but needed to change her plans to accommodate Avenger instead, who was apparently similar to a high-drain Berserker, a non-combatant Caster, and a long-range Archer.

Well, she still needed to see her Servant's ability first-hand to assess her claims.

"Tomorrow night, we'll be patrolling for the other Masters, Avenger."

The young Servant giggles, "Then sweet dreams, Master~" and disappears into Spirit Form.

[...]

Kuno Kishinami was an average and quiet girl who attended Homurahara Academy as a first year. She had long brown hair and beautiful brown eyes, though her style was plain it was well accepted to be 'Yamato Nadeshiko' quality from the Japanese student body and she was ranked 6th Prettiest Girl at Homurahara Academy, which also used popularity to determine the listing as well.

Speaking of, the ranking was: 1st, Rin Tohsaka. 2nd, Luviagelita Edelfelt. 3rd, Misaya Reiroukan. 4th, Sakura Matou. 5th, Manaka Sajyou. 6th, Kuno Kishinami. 7th, Sion Eltnam Atlasia. 8th, Riesbyfe Stridberg. 9th, Satsuki Yumizuka. And 10th, Kotone Shindou.

The girl had a habit of taking nighttime strolls to feel the cool breeze against her skin and tonight was no different.

"Hey you, take my hand if you want to live."

Though she wasn't expecting to get mugged.

Standing before her was a man with white hair dressed in all black. In his hands were, strangely enough, not a gun but a bladed weapon. Not a knife but an imposing large black sword gleaming under the moonlight.

It was a surreal scene to Kuno Kishinami. She just couldn't equate the fact that someone was threatening her with an antique such as a sword. She almost wonders if this was a dream she was experiencing.

It was perhaps because of this reason that she asks a question despite her situation, "Who are you?"

"Saver," is all he says to her.

She did not trust him but she could not refuse him for her life was now on the line. Slowly she reaches out for his free hand and he grasps her hand strongly.

Like magic the black sword disappears only to be replaced by a jagged iridescent dagger.

Kuno's eye widen as the weapon is raised in the air but blinks and gasps when the man pierces it into himself.

At the same time, far off in the woods, a cabin crumbles and falls upon a sleeping man. Crushing him to death.

The girl grits her teeth as a pain surges throughout onto gripped hand and a red light carves a strange symbol on it.

With the act complete, the man merely demands, "Bring me to Shirou Emiya," with a cold hard tone.

[...]

Within the Matou Manor the young Shinji Matou conspires with the Head of the family.

"We know that Sakura doesn't want to fight in the Grail War, grandfather... W-Why not make me a Master instead? You have a way to do that, right?" the blue-haired boy with steel-blue eyes sweats as he speaks; controlling his tone as to not anger Zouken Matou.

"Hoh?" the old man chuckles, "And what could a magicless worm like you do, hm?"

"W-Win! I'll win the war of course! There's no way Sakura would do it, you know her personality as well as I do, grandfather."

The man chuckles once more, "So you wish to squirm, is it, Shinji?" chuckling again, "Very well, I'll let you play at being Master."

The teen wryly grins, keeping his swirling thoughts of anger, disgust, and victory from pouring out.

"I will have to say no to such a prospect," a female voice rings in the room, causing Shinji to become startled but Zouken to simply smirk.

"W-Whose there?!" the boy shouts.

From out of the corner room, leaning upon the wall, was the form of the Servant of the Mount, Rider. "I will have no one but Sakura as my Master."

"Y-You what are you doing here?!" the teenage boy growls.

Rider steps forward brandishing two blades in her hand and fills the room with swords. Her cold glare pins down the helpless shivering grandson. "Wha?!" was all that came out from Shinji Matou's mouth before he was ruthlessly cut down.

"Hoh, what do you think you're doing, Rider?" Zouken muses, "He was but a coward, but even cowards have their uses."

"Have you already forgotten, Zouken Matou?" the woman speaks coolly, "I have promised my Master that I will protect her during this war. So I shall eliminate those that will bring her harm. When she wakes up tomorrow, I want her to wake up to a clean house."

The old parasite laughs, "Do you think that you can kill me, Servant?"

"I know that your body is made up of countless Blood Worms, Zouken Matou. Should even if one tiny worm escapes then you will survive."

The Matou Head frowns, "And so you plan to use your Noble Phantasm?"

The old parasite did not know who this Heroic Spirit was nor what kind of Noble Phantasm she possessed, but he knew the types of Noble Phantasms a Servant could use. Anti-Unit, Anti-Army, Anti-Fortress; these three were the most common types of Noble Phantasms.

If the Servant of the Mount wanted to destroy every single one of his worms then she would need to use an Anti-Army or Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm; something that would indiscriminately destroy a large portion of the Matou Residence. No, the Rider Class was known for their mighty Noble Phantasm; the entirety of the Matou Residence would be destroy, leaving only a crater behind.

"Such foolishness," he scoffs.

Several swords stab into the shadow of Zouken Matou and binds him into place.

"Black Keys?" He knew no such Heroic Spirit that used the weapons of the Church.

The purple-clad Servant chants her aria and her inner-world begins to stir.

"I am the core of my sword."

Dozens of blades form in the air.

"Of steel is my frame and of steel is my form."

They stab into the wooden floor and seal away Zouken Matou from sight.

"I have been surrounded by over a thousand blades."

Layers upon layers are added.

"Unknown to death, nor known to life."

It is a prison of blades.

"Have withstood trials to become a weapon."

It is too late for him to escape.

"Yet this body will never be sheathed."

It has come.

"And so I forge: Endless Blade Resonance!"

The world explodes, fire erupts from the Servant and spreads in a circle. The world has changes, reality is being shoved aside and replaced with another. The furniture and the room of the Matou Residence have disappeared and now only a barren land of steel remains.

The enclosure of swords shatter and it only takes but a moment for Zouken Matou to realize what this is.

"A Reality Marble...!" There was fear in the old parasite's voice.

He was isolated in this world. He could not control Sakura, he could control his army of worms, he could not control anything beyond that which was already here with him. In this world, death was eying his rotting soul and he had no true means to fight the Servant of the Mount.

The Servant pulls out a blade off the ground and levels its point at her enemy.

"Zouken Matou, squirm like the worm you are."

In Rider's hand was the red sword called 'Laevateinn'; an imitation of an imitation. Its other name was 'The World Shall Burn.' That is the identity of this weapon; a sword of fire meant to engulf the world in burning flames.

Though in truth, this copy could only be scaled as an Anti-Unit to Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm.

It is a D Rank Noble Phantasm that would rise to B Rank in its true form, but this degraded copy cannot handle the stress and will shatter upon the calling of its name. Though such a thing was not a problem for a Servant who could Trace.

Rider plans to exterminate the old parasite by scorching this barren world with cleansing fire. Something that was not difficult to do because Laevateinn knew no discrimination; it would burn its enemies, its allies, its masters, and itself.

Yet that was still not enough. A burning world was not enough. The fires must turn everything to ash, it must melt away everything, it must turn this world into hell itself.

Hundreds of blade jut out from Rider's body and interlock with each other. They grow, they extend, they are pushed out by new blades, they wrap around her, they form around her, they scrap amongst one another.

And a large dragon is formed from these blades.

Scales of swords. Fangs of swords. Claws of swords. Wings of sword. Limbs of swords. It a beast made of swords or perhaps swords made into a beast.

She pours prana into Laevateinn and turns it into a Broken Phantasm; flames shoot out from the cracks of blade. The dragon of swords opens its mouth and reveals the the tool of pure destruction within its jaws.

The Matou Head despises everything with the entirety of his body, mind, and soul as he glares at the Broken Phantasm.

"LAEVATEINN!"

The beast roars and the world is engulfed in distorted flames that spread as though the very air itself was a flammable substance.

One minute. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes.

The world continues to burn.

That night, the beings called Shinji Matou and Zouken Matou vanished from the world without leaving behind a trace.

[...]

_Trace On!_

[...]

Shirou Emiya dreamt of a a green grassland with clear skies and a bright sun cooled by the gentle breeze.

There were nameless tombs that littered the vast endless field. Each in the shape of an empty throne.

Glory and ruin, that was what every single one of these graves held and displayed.

And amidst it all was a lone gravekeeper.

He dreamt this dream but all he remembered was the familiar gravekeeper standing in front of a beautiful blue and golden tombstone.

[...]

Groggily, Shirou Emiya wakes up from bed with a yawn. He feels tired and weak, the pains from yesterday still aching his body. He scratches his belly lazily before getting out of bed.

He looks at the clock and wonders why he woke up later than usual.

He blinks and then remembers the incident of the night before. The red-haired teen searches the room with his eyes but could not find his Servant anywhere.

'_Is she in Spirit Form?_' The boy was unsure how exactly such a thing worked. He didn't know if that meant a Servant became completely invisible even against their own Master or not.

"Shiroko, you here?" he calls but receives no reply. Most likely she was somewhere else in the Emiya Household.

Turning the knob and exiting his room, the boy's ears are assaulted by the loud shrill scream of his guardian, Taiga Fujimura.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN SHIROU'S HOME?!"

Yes, it seemed that Taiga Fujimura has spotted Saber somewhere downstairs; the living room near the kitchen by the sound of it.

'_Think fast, Shirou Emiya. I need an excuse for Shiroko to stay home with me without hiding her from Teacher Fujimura and Sakura._'

"AND WHY ARE YOU WALKING AROUND IN YOUR UNDERWEAR?!"

The boy's thoughts instantly freezes.

'_...Fuck._'

"SHIROU, SAVE ME! I'M ABOUT TO BE TAKEN!" Taiga Fujimura desperately screams, "NOOOOO!"

'_What?_' but he did not think for long as his body immediately moves at the cry for help. He rushes down the stairs and runs to the living room, opening the door, he shouts, "Fuji-sis?!" and then stops at the scene before him.

Holding down the strong Taiga Fujimura, the feared 'Tiger of Homurahara Academy,' down on the floor was Saber in red lacy undergarments.

Shirou turns as red as a tomato, "Ah, um...!" This was too much, just too much for this growing teenage boy. Yet still he does not divert his eyes and soaks in the sight.

"Don't just stand there and gape! Do something, Shirou!" his teacher yells at him with tears in her eyes.

He comes back to reality, "W-What is going on here?!" he dares not move any closer. Coming into close contact with his near naked Servant would be a fatal blow to his conscious mind.

Saber smiles brightly, "Good morning, Shirou. I didn't expect to see up so early since you were so hot and bothered yesterday night~"

"Y-Y-You...! Stop saying things that people will misunderstand!" the third-rate magus shouts as his Servant giggles at his expense.

[...]

Shirou Emiya sits uncomfortably to the right of the Servant of the Sword, her near naked body and the curve of her figures were a dangerous weapon against his fortitude, and on the opposite side of them, across the table, was Taiga Fujimura and Sakura Matou who were also uncomfortable though for different reasons.

On the table sat a light Japanese breakfast. It was the result of only being be able to momentarily hold off from his guardian's storming questions about the under-dressed Servant.

Taiga Fujimura, famously nicknamed 'Tiger' which is a name she hates, practitioner of kendo, daughter of a yakuza boss, Shirou Emiya's legal guardian, and a firm supporter of coupling Shirou Emiya with Sakura Matou; she is a hyperactive teacher working at Homurahara Academy.

Short brown with a short ponytail and brown eyes, the twenty-something woman embodies youthful vigor with a cute face. Right now she is wearing a bluish-green one-piece dress over a yellow with horizontal black-stripes long-sleeved shirt and white round earrings.

Her expression was a scowling glare that shifted between being mad at Shirou Emiya's flustered look or crying at Saber's grin.

Sakura Matou, the fourth most attractive and popular girl of Homurahara Academy according to unofficial student polling, had a shy but downtrodden look on her face as her eyes flitted between Shirou Emiya and Saber.

She has medium-length violet hair that reaches her shoulder and violet eyes. Her hair is swept aside on the left by a pink ribbon and reveals her ear. She was dressed in the Homurahara Academy Girl's Uniform; a button-downed tan vest over a white long-sleeved shirt with thick red trims on the cuffs and collar, a highly decorated red ribbon with golden trims, and a knee-length black skirt.

Her emotions were far more controlled compare to the energetic teacher as only a light frown graces her lips.

The tension in the room was unpleasant for everybody, except for Saber who found the atmosphere to be comedic and amusing.

"Shirou, who is this?" Taiga Fujimura growls out.

The boy's thoughts were a swirling mess. How was he going to explain this? The situation was simply too far out of his hand.

"I am his fiancee," the under-clad Servant of the Sword answers demurely.

Okay, now the situation was now completely out of his hand.

"W-W-WHAT?!" everybody at the table sputters aloud.

The teacher completely leaps over the table, avoiding the food, and grabs her ward by the collar of his shirt, "Shirou?! What is the meaning of this?!" and shakes him like a rag doll, "You can't get married with an older woman that isn't me! Whose going to take care of me now?!"

And yet, he still found the time to quip in his mind, '_But don't you still get an allowance from your dad, Fuji-sis?_'

"WAAAHHHHH! A strange woman is going to take away my Shirou!" the guardian complains.

Saber only adds more fuel to the growing fire, "If being a stranger is a problem, then why don't we adults go find ourselves a private room and get to know each other very personally, mmh~?"

Taiga shivers and retreats, "UWAAHHH! A beast! There's a beast in the house!"

The Servant stifles a giggle and returns to her regal bearing, "Well, humor aside, allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Shiroko, Shirou's fiance. A pleasure to meet you all."

'_What are you trying to pull here, Shiroko...?!_'

"That!" the guardian jabs a finger out, "What is that all about?! I haven't heard anything about that!"

"Hm? Won't you introduce yourself?"

"Gmmh..." Taiga mumbles, "Taiga Fujimura, and I'm Shirou's guardian! Now explain yourself!"

"A pleasure to meet you, Taiga, but it seems that my marriage with young Shirou Emiya was something arranged by our family years ago and I was only recently informed about it."

"A-A-Arranged m-marriage?!"

Saber smiles, "Mmh, but do not worry yourself, I have no plans on marrying someone so young and inexperienced. I'm thinking of this little trip as something like a vacation get-away."

'_Shiroko, what kind of story is this? Who do you think you're fooling? This is some weird soap opera._'

Taiga comes out of her cowering and shouts, "I can't trust you with my Shirou!"

Saber's eyes pans from Taiga Fujimura to Sakura Matou and then finally Shirou Emiya.

"Hoh? I see, little Shirou has already plucked two flowers, has he?"

'_What do you mean by 'little'? And, no, I'm sorry, but I don't do gardening, Shiroko._'

"But Shirou has already offered me roof and free meals, so I have every intention of staying here for the duration of my trip here in Fuyuki City."

"What? Just go home already, you freeloading beast!" Taiga shouts some more.

'_You're a freeloader too, Fuji-sis._'

The Servant of the Sword narrows her eyes and grins, "Mmh, I feel the urge to ravage someone~"

"UWAH! My clothes! My clothes! You're removing my clothes with those lecherous eyes! Shirou, my chastity is in danger!"

Shirou Emiya groans in his mind, trying to keep his imagination from wondering, '_No, please stop. You two, please stop talking..._' and opens his mouth, "C-Come on, let's eat breakfast. It's getting cold already."

The teacher wanted to complain some more but the loud growling of her stomach silenced any opposition.

"F-Fine, food comes first!" she says as she crawls back to the dinner table, "But this isn't over yet!"

[...]

The breakfast meal was a very quiet affair. No thanks to the instigator known as Saber.

Taiga Fujimura had devoured her meal quickly and tried snatching the food out of Saber's bowls and plates out of pure spite. However, her chopsticks were easily swatted away by Saber, who revealed that she was ambidextrous enough to use chopsticks in both hands along with amazing coordination and grace, as she defended and ate her meal at the same time.

Sakura Matou and Shirou Emiya ate their food quietly, though in the girl's case she took peeking glances between Shirou and Saber. The boy had only caught it once and responded with a smile that meant everything was okay.

With that all said and done, Taiga Fujimura spent more energy on trying to steal food than she actually gained from eating that breakfast.

"Shirou... I'm still hungry!" the teacher complains.

"I'm sorry, Fuji-sis, but that's all the breakfast I made. I can cook some more and then deliver it you later at school though."

"Yes, please that do that, Shirou! The school meals suck!" the woman huffs matter of factly.

"Ah, well, Fuji-sis, Sakura, you two should get going or you'll be late for Archery."

Immediately Taiga straightens up, "I REFUSE!"

"What?"

"School isn't important, Shirou!"

'_You're a teacher, please don't say that._'

"I can't leave you alone here or a mistake might happen!" the teacher points to Saber.

"Huh? Mistake?"

Taiga speaks more feverishly, "Yes! That's right! A mistake!" She runs to him and grabs the collars of his shirt, "The greatest mistake of your life! As a man you won't be able to take it back!" she says as she shakes him.

'_Fuji-sis, your outbursts are too disconnected today. Spare me._'

"Nothing is going to happen," Saber interjects with a wicked smile, "That didn't happen last night."

If Shirou Emiya was a master at making magi palm their faces in frustration or give him funny looks, then Saber was a master at implying things with a tone that even the often thick-headed boy could feel.

The red-headed teen is blushing a furiously red. His imagination runs vividly wild before being promptly cut to pieces by imaginary weapons.

"E-Emiya..." Sakura Matou mutters silently.

Cold. Taiga freezes at those words and goes pale from shock. She slowly creaks her neck as though she was a machine and stares at him with an accusing yet blank face.

"W-We didn't do anything last night!" Shirou quickly blurts out.

"That we can speak of in the company of others," his Servant immediately adds.

'_Shiroko, you...!_'

The guardian lets go of the boy's collar and her hands hang limply on her side. The temperature in the room drops as murderous intent emits from the being known as 'Taiga Fujimura.'

Quickly, Shirou shuffles backward and hits the wall, "F-Fuji-sis?"

An inhuman growl creeps out her throat.

'_Have I awoken the sleeping beast of Fuyuki City?!_'

"GRAWH!" roars the beast as she pounces forward to catch her prey.

"UWAaahhHHH?!" Shirou screams but then suddenly sees the world blur as a Saber's hand pulls him away from danger.

The beast heavily clonks her head on the wall, slumps down, and passes out. And thus the beast slumbers once more and a great crisis has been averted.

[...]

The third-rate magus had his head enveloped in the sizable mounds of flesh that were Saber's breasts. Only the thin fabric of her bra separated his face from her warm and enticing bare skin. His protests were muffled out by the valley of her chest.

"Well, I guess it's safe to talk now," Saber smirks as she moves Shirou out of the way and stands up. Immediately her blood red armor and tattered black clothes materializes on her. "Wouldn't you say so, Rider?"

"Eh?" Shirou and Sakura utter together.

From behind Sakura Matou a person appears. Her armor resembled the attire of Rin Tohsaka's red-and-black Archer, except the red was replaced with the color purple. Her long white hair was tied into a pony-tail and she held no weapons but her glaring dark gray eyes were sharp.

"Saber," the purple-clad Servant states. The two phantoms size each other up.

The young Masters are flustered as their thoughts race. There was only one obvious conclusion that the two of them came to: the other was also a Master in this Fifth Holy Grail War.

"S-Sakura...!" "E-Emiya..."

They could not look each other in the eye.

'_What's going on?_' they shared the same thought.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Servant Saber."

"Servant Rider."

"W-Wait a second, isn't Luvia's Servant suppose to be Rider?" Shirou blurts out.

Sakura blinks, while Rider's reaction was an almost unnoticeable twitch of the eye.

"That does not seem to be the case, my Master," the Servant of the Sword states confidently, "It is most helpful that Rider here was generous enough to tell us her name."

The other Servant clicks her tongue, shifting her stance slightly.

"After all, it's rather difficult to tell who is who when this Fifth Holy Grail War is not a retelling of our own past experience."

Two nameless swords strike one against one another in a resounding clang. The weapons repel their opposite and disappear as quickly as they came.

"...What do you know?" Rider questions.

"Only a little more than you do, Rider. So why don't we sit down and have a chat?"

Silently the Servant of the Mount returns to her Master's side, "Start talking."

Saber smiles, "Yesterday was a most amusing spectacle, Rider. Including myself, five of the seven Servants of this war were gathered there together. A shame that you missed it," a brief pause, "Well, the most curious matter was the fact that all Servants were using a specific magecraft. In fact, one of the Servants had theorized that we are all the same person, mmh, no, the same existence to certain extent, anyways."

"..."

"So, how is it, Rider? The Shirou Emiya sitting before you is not 'you.' Nor am I 'you' as well," she devilishly grins.

"...I think your jokes have gone too far, Saber."

The Servant of the Sword laughs, "I find it very interesting. A war with seven similar yet different existences; what are the odds?"

"Eh? W-What are you saying?" Sakura Matou could not follow the conversation at all. The words of the red-and-black Servant was simply too strange and unbelievable to her.

Saber beams at the girl, "Allow me to reintroduce myself to you. I am Servant Saber, the Servant of Shirou Emiya. My name is Shiroko and I am also a 'Shirou' from another reality."

It was just too unreal. The girl opens her mouth but cannot find the words to speak.

Shirou is nudged by Saber's foot, "H-Huh?" He looks up to his Servant.

"Well then, my Master? Don't you have something to say?"

The boy wasn't sure what the woman meant but he follows her quick glance at Sakura and then he understood.

'_Ah, that's right. Sakura is a Master too._'

"Sakura," he calls out.

The girl breaks out of stupor, "Y-Yes, Emiya?"

He speaks firmly, clearly, and honestly, "I don't want to fight you. You're my junior and I'm your senior. I think of you like family, so I don't want to fight you, Sakura."

"E-Emiya... I don't want to fight you too."

Shirou lets out a breath of relief.

"...Do you want the Grail, Emiya?"

The boy blinks, "Ah, the Grail? No, I don't want it; I don't really care about it. But if other people are going to fight for it, then I want to prevent innocent bystanders getting caught in the cross-fire."

"That's sound just like you, Emiya," Sakura smiles at him and he scratches the back of his head weakly.

"What about you, Sakura? Do you have a wish for the Grail?"

"N-No, not at all."

"Ah, is that so?" the boy merely nods.

Saber steps forward, "Good, we have an alliance then," she declares firmly.

"A-An alliance?" Shirou repeats.

"Of course, if two Masters do not wish to fight one another then it's only natural that they form an alliance, is it not, my Master? It would also be much safer for you two if you could rely on each other for assistance."

"I see..."

"Also," she continues, "It would be to your advantage to have an ally, my Master. If you wish for this war to have the least amount of casualties then it is in your best interest to quickly end this war. To do that, all you would need to do is defeat the Servants of the other Masters, and two Servants are better than one for such a goal."

"Saber," The Servant of the Mount cuts in, "Who are the other Masters and their Servants?"

"Why don't you answer that, my Master," Saber states it rather than asks.

"O-Oh, well, um, there was..." the red-haired teen was really sure how to explain this, "Tohsaka and Archer. Reiroukan and Lancer. Luvia and Rider, ah, no, that's wrong; I don't know who it is. And... Illy... Illyasviel, um, Einstein and Berserker...?"

"Illyasviel von Einzbern," Saber corrects him, "Berserker is a man whose skin is as black as the night with scars as white as glaring light. Archer is a man dressed in red and black. Lancer is a man fitted with light black armor. And Caster is a woman. A common feature between them is their tall skin, tanned feature, gray eyes, and white hair."

Rider accepts the information and returns a nod.

Sakura Matou, however, was not paying attention to the descriptions of the Servants. Her mind was still trying to wrap itself around the names of three of the four participants.

"E-Eh? T-Tohsaka?" the girl fidgets, "Do you mean Rin Tohsaka? The school idol? That Tohsaka?"

The boy nods.

"Misaya Reiroukan, the model?"

He nods again.

"Luvia, as in Luviagelita Edelfelt?"

He nods once more.

"B-But they're all students at our school!" she speaks in a voice that was somehow raised but not necessarily loud.

"Huh? Oh, now that you mention it, yeah, they are."

The girl had wanted to say more, but the Servant of the Sword takes control of the conversation with a clap of her hands.

"I'm sure you have many things to say to my Master, Sakura Matou, but anymore talk and the three of you will be late school. So save your questions for later."

"Three?" the two students parrot.

Saber points a finger at the still unconscious Taiga Fujimura.

'_Oh_,' they understood.

[...]

Shirou went to his room to get dressed at the insistence of his Servant. Meanwhile Sakura was cleaning up the plates and such.

That left the two female Servants to talk just outside on the Emiya porch that overlooked the still devastated ground of the backyard.

"What do you want, Saber?" The Servant of the Mount had no intention of getting along with the other Servant; even if the alliances between their Masters was more than likely going to be permanent.

"Oh, I was just curious about whether two certain existences were also in this world, since they were rather problematic individuals in my own. And 'they' would be Shinji Matou and Zouken Matou; Sakura Matou's brother and grandfather."

"...They will not be a problem."

"Oh, is that so? So I've been beaten to the punch two times in row now, huh? That's a little disappointing to hear," Saber sighs.

With that their conversation ends and the two Servants wait for their Masters.

[...]

Rider reverts back to Spirit Form and Saber wears her casual clothes from last night as she carries the knocked out teacher.

The two student Masters are dressed in their school uniforms as they pass through the front entrance of the academy's gate and head towards the Archery Building. They are stopped by Ayako Mitsuzuri, the captain, as she tries to persuade Shirou to rejoin the club but the boy politely declines her offer.

After leaving the Archery Club Advisor, Taiga Fujimura, in the hands of Ayako Mitsuzuri, Shirou and Saber bid farewell to Sakura and the captain before leaving. The pair then finds a spot for Saber to disappear into Spirit Form and next Shirou Emiya heads to class.

The classes pass by steadily and lunch-time arrives.

'_Hm? Is something going on?_'

A good portions of the students didn't leave the classroom and were whispering amongst themselves.

Turning his head, Shirou spots Rin Tohsaka and Luviagelita Edelfelt waiting outside his classroom. The two girls were trying hard to ignore the other.

'_Huh, what are those two doing here?_'

He stands up from his seat to leave. Because of the hectic morning today he didn't get an opportunity to make himself a boxed-lunch and so needed to head to the cafeteria to get food.

Sliding open the door and exiting, he greets the other two Masters, "Morning, Tohsaka. Morning, Luvia," and walks off to the cafeteria.

But he is stopped by Rin's almost growling voice several steps later, "Emiya, what the heck was that?"

Shirou turns his head around, "Huh?"

"Don't 'huh' me, Emiya. Did you forget?"

"Forget what?"

The twin-tail girl folds her arms, "'Forget what?' he says," she taps her feet and scolds him, "I told you yesterday night that we were going to have a long talk today at school, you idiot."

The boy vaguely remembers something like that, "O-Oh, right."

"Well then? Follow me," she huffs.

'_The more she talks to me, the more that honor student image of her crumbles before me..._' he groans in his mind, '_Reality is so cruel..._'

"Um, can this wait till later? I need to go to cafeteri-"

"No, that'll take too long," The Tohsaka Head instantly refuses him and then she grabs his left hand, "Come on, we're going to the roof, Emiya."

Luviagelita sends a sharp glare at Rin before grabbing his right hand, "Yes, Shirou, let us head to the roof to discuss our plan of action."

As the two beauties send each other contempt hidden behind smiles, the boy was blushing furiously.

'_Their hands are soft...!_'

Done with the hostility, the female Masters dragged the amateur magus to the roof.

That day, Shirou Emiya was secretly placed on the hit-list of several very fanatical fans.

[...]

The three Masters sat in a circle on a secluded spot of the roof that hid them from sight and the blowing winds.

"Emiya, there's still time for you to quit," Rin proclaims.

"What?" Shirou and Luviagelita say in unison.

"Look, normally the Grail chooses the Master. Yesterday was just strange and you became forcibly involved in something that you shouldn't have."

"What are you trying to pull here, Tohsaka?" the Edelfelt Head voices.

"Nothing, I'm just giving an opportunity for Emiya to return to his ordinary life while he still can."

"I'm sorry, Tohsaka, but I can't agree with that," Shirou answers sternly, "Even though I got myself involved completely by accident, now that I know what the Holy Grail War is, I can't turn a blind eye to it."

"Hmph," the girl huffs, "Well then, do you know where the Kotomine Church is?" seeing him shake his head, she continues, "Then I'll show you where it is after school. It's neutral territory and the Fake Priest there is also the Supervisor of the Holy Grail War. There's a rule that every Master has to introduce themselves to him. So if you've got anymore questions, then you can just ask the Fake Priest."

"I'll be coming along as well," adds Luviagelita, "I have yet to introduce myself to the Supervisor."

The boy nods, "Okay. So is there anything else?"

"Yes, there is," the blond ringlet girl confirms, "Berserker is the most dangerous and strongest Servant in the war and it's unlikely that a lone Servant will be able to defeat him on their own. So I would like to propose an alliance with you, Shirou."

"'We' want to propose an alliance," Rin corrects her rival with a slightly raised tone.

Before Shirou could reply, his Servant materializes behind him with her hands on his shoulders, "Hoh? An alliance does sound interesting, however, we need to run this through with our ally."

"...Your ally?" Tohsaka says incredulously, "You allied yourself with Reiroukan?!"

"No, not the Master of Lancer," Saber clarifies with a devious smile, "Our ally is the Master of Rider."

Rin gives her rival a dull glare, "The Master of Rider, huh?" She had already suspected that Luviagelita's Servant was not Rider.

The blond beauty lowers her head, "Ah, well, that is..."

"Luvia?" Shirou calls out her name from concern.

"Mmgh... My Servant is Caster...!" she truthfully answers. She just couldn't lie directly to Shirou Emiya.

The ordinary looking Servant appears behind her Master, "Greetings, I am Servant Caster," and introduces herself flatly.

"Well? Do we have an alliance or not, Emiya?" Tohsaka prods. A four-way alliance was probably the minimum needed to deal with Berserker safely.

'_I don't want to fight either of them_,' Shirou nods, "Yeah, let's team up, Tohsaka, Luvia."

"So, whose that ally of your's, Emiya?"

"It's Sakura."

"...Sakura Matou?" Luviagelita asks.

"Yes, that's her."

'_Keh! Why is that girl always one step ahead of me?!_' the Edelfelt Head despairs in her thoughts.

"Matou, huh? Yeah, I guess it's alright if it's her," Tohsaka mumbles to herself, "Anyways, after school, we'll all meet up at the Archery Club to pick up Matou. Agreed?"

"Alright." "Very well." Answers the boy and girl, respectively.

[...]

"Now then, onto the next order of business," Rin states, "How are you feeling, Emiya?"

"Hm? I feel fine." He didn't feel like mentioning that he was actually still a little sore.

"Really? Are you sure?" adds in Luviagelita.

"Yeah," he answers firmly.

Rin sighs, "Jeez, you looked half-dead last night and you're already fine? You must really be one healthy fool," she straightens her expression, "So what happened last night?"

"Last night? Uh, well, after the fight with Berserker, Shiroko explained somethings about the Holy Grail War to me."

"'Shiroko'?" the Edelfelt head cuts in.

The Servant of the Sword smiles, "That would be my name."

Rin clarifies, "No, I meant when you summoned Saber. What happened to _you_, Emiya?"

"That... well... I don't know," he responds, '_What did happen to be me?_'

"Hm~" Saber hums loudly, "The answer to that lies within my Master. Yesterday night seems to have been the first time he has ever used his natural Magic Circuits."

The two girls gasp.

"Shirou!" Luviagelita gapes.

Rin is angry, "Emiya, you idiot!"

'_What? What's going on here?_'

"Explain to me, right now, just how you've been performing your magecraft!" the twin-tail girl demands.

And so Shirou Emiya explains his magic training. About his midnight ventures into the privacy of his shed to create a magic circuit everynight and the searing pain that came with it.

"Is there something wrong, Tohsaka?" he asks afterward.

The school idol throws a fit, "Of course there's something wrong! The way you've been using magic could have gotten you crippled or left you for dead; I'm surprised that you're even as well as you are since you've been creating Magic Circuits for years now, you idiot!"

The first rate-magi proceeds to scold him while utterly explaining everything he did wrong. Magus had natural Magic Circuits in their soul and those only needed to be turn on and off with a mental trigger. Because of that, there was never a need to create a new magic circuit every time; it was a procedure with an extremely high mortality rating for little gain, as the magic circuit nerve was not permanent.

"Oh," he answers flatly, still processing the new morbid information, "That's bad."

"It's more than bad," Rin huffs, "I'm really surprised that you didn't die right on the spot of the summoning, Emiya!"

Luviagelita gets her turn to scold the boy, "Shirou, promise me that you'll stop using magic for now."

"Huh? Stop using magic? But I..."

"Promise me," she pleads to him.

"...Alright. I'll stop using magic."

The Edelfelt Head lets out a breath of relief.

Rin Tohsaka huffs some more, "Emiya, tomorrow I'm going to have a stern talking with you!"

'_You mean this didn't count as stern already? Are you a witch, Tohsaka?_'

[...]

After some more talking the two female Masters came to some kind of agreement and then excused themselves and left Shirou Emiya alone on the roof.

The boy feels the cool breeze brush against his face as he stands near the fenced roof-top.

His mind was already wandering elsewhere; reviewing every new information that he could remember.

'_Berserker, huh? But I don't want to fight against that little girl either..._'

He knew that his opponents were all magus but he couldn't imagine any of these girls being a genuine killer.

'_Isn't there someway, somehow, I can end this peacefully...?_'

He racks his brain to no clear answer.

[...]

Manaka Sajyou was walking down the hallway and it was only by chance that she caught sight of a red-haired teen coming down from the roof-top stairs.

Quietly she walks up to the boy and taps his shoulder and he turns around with a surprised face. That face becomes red as Manaka's hand caresses his cheek.

'_He looks just like Assassin._'

The Master of the Servant of the Shadows knew that the entities known as Shirou Emiya and Assassin were not one and the same. However, she was particularly curious just how similar yet different their existences could be. She could tell that physically they were almost uncannily alike, but mentally they were far apart.

'_I want to break him and hear him beg. I want to torture him and drink his tears. I want to twist him and leave him dead. I want to shatter him and hear him curse me. I want to cripple him and see him helpless. I want to bleed him and bathe in his blood._'

I want to. I want to. I want to. I want to. I want to. I want to. I want to. I want to. I want to. I want to. I want to. I want to.

Manaka Sajyou's thoughts race in such a manner and her heart flutters alive.

'_I want him._'

She comes to this conclusion and then leaves without speaking a word.

[...]

'_W-Woah, my heart was beating so fast!_' Shirou puts a hand to his reddened cheek.

Manaka Sajyou was one of the most popular girls at Homurahara Academy despite being a relatively new student. She always held this graceful sort of aura on her along with a gentle and soft smile; a look that made seem like she was always about to fall asleep. However, she was a quiet person and nobody knew what thoughts went inside her head. So she was essentially considered a mysterious beauty.

It was quite a surprise to the boy that she had touched his cheek. He honestly didn't expect the pretty girl to have ever approached him so brazenly and to leave so suddenly as well.

Shirou shakes his head to clear his thoughts.

'_I need to meet up with Tohsaka, Luvia, and Sakura. I don't want to keep them waiting._'

[...]

It was after school when Shirou Emiya was unexpectedly approached by a female first year student.

"Excuse me," she says in a bell like voice, "Emiya," but her tone was somehow flat, "Please follow me or I will die." Such stoicism would seem like a joke to anybody else.

"...What?" Shirou could understand the abrupt statement. '_She'll die?_'

The student was having doubts. Kuno Kishinami had heard about how kind and selfless the upperclassman Shirou Emiya was, and she was also threatened by the cloaked sword-wielding man to use that to lure the boy in. However, she just couldn't believe that; that a person that would risk their life for a stranger, someone like that just couldn't possibly exist in this day and age.

"Whose threatening you?" her senior asks with fire in his eyes.

'_You idiot. Are you really that trusting?_' her lips form a small dainty frown, "He's waiting for us in the forest," she points to the region of trees that dotted the landscape around the school. It was in the opposite direction of the Archery Club.

"Then let's go," Shirou replies adamantly, "I'll save you."

[...]

The first year student leads them deep through the maze of trees.

It is a mostly quietly trip save for the exchanging of their names.

"You've been followed," a cold hard voice rings out.

"Whose there?!" Shirou shifts his stance.

Silence for but a moment.

The fallen leaves on the ground rustle and fly up into the air. A large man is suddenly standing in front of Shirou, the stranger opens his mouth to speak but then retreats backward, hiding himself amongst the bodies of trees once again.

"You're a feisty one, Assassin," chuckles the now materialized Saber as she twirls her nameless blade in her hand.

Kuno lightly gasps at the surreal superhuman scene before her.

"Shiroko!" the amateur magus calls out.

"Stay back with the girl, my Master," she places a hand in front of him, "You don't want her to die, do you?"

Shirou clenches his fist as he backs away with Kuno. But it was difficult for him to keep still.

Saber pans her eyes swiftly. She could feel that the other Servant was still in the vicinity.

A sword flies straight at her and the Servant of the Sword dodges it. And then another, and another, and another, and another, and so on; and she dodges them all.

The red-and-black Servant smiles and opens her mouth-

[...]

'_Who the hell is this?_' Saver thinks to himself.

He did not recognize the female Servant at all; she was definitely not the small but powerful Arturia Pendragon that he knew.

'_Damn_,' the future Servant curses, '_This complicates things._'

Saver's plan was to contact himself from the past and minimize the damages of the 5th Holy Grail War. He simply could not trust anybody else, whether it be the Masters or the Servants, from abusing the wish-granting artifact.

Though his past-self was soft and weak and without a doubt lacking as a magus, it didn't matter to Saver. He had no plans on wasting his reserved prana on fighting the other Servants fairly, not at all. He planned to take a few modern weapons from Raiga Fujimura, the father of Taiga Fujimura and his past-self's godfather, and use those tools to eliminate the other Masters.

This was how Saver had won his own Grail War.

He turned his mind to steel and used everything available to him. No danger was too great, no cunning was too devious, no sacrifice was too merciful.

Eventually in life he became as feared as the original Magus Killer, Kiritsugu Emiya, himself.

Saver had no regrets about his past, however, an opportunity to save more lives than before was something he could not refuse.

Rin Tohsaka, Illyasviel von Einzbern, Kuzuki Souichirou, Kotomine Kirei, Shinji Matou, Zouken Matou, Sakura Matou; all of these dangerous individuals would find a bullet in their head. And with that their Servants would be gone and the citizens of Fuyuki City could live in peace.

The Servant pulls out a handgun from his duster. This is an ordinary tool, no different from the daggers used by Hassan-i-Sabah, merely a weapon that can't even be classified as a Noble Phantasm. However, it is a weapon nonetheless.

Servants do not possess flesh and blood bodies. Even what normally accounted as fatal wounds were generally superficial to most Servants. Usually a decapitating strike or the destruction of the 'heart' could ever kill a Servant; which is why Masters are generally a prime target. Thus this handgun could not even make a Servant flinch should the bullets hit.

But this gun was not a tool for killing but for incapacitation. Though Servants did not have real joints, they had something resembling joints. Shooting with pin-point accuracy, Saver could briefly destroy all the joints in a Servant and render them temporarily immobile.

He readies the firearm and looks for an opening to shoot at.

[...]

-and loudly speaks, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Servant Shirou Emiya."

Discernment of the Poor [B], this is a skill acquired by Saber due to the teachers she grew up with. At this rank, it allows her to understand the character of her opponent with but a glance.

As such, she understood what type of person the other Servant was.

The enemy Servant was someone willing to sacrifice the life of one to save the many. Someone who did not look back at their past choices and only strived onward to the bloody future. A survivor that carried the immense burden of the dead for as long as he lives. A meticulous planner that executed things perfectly.

So there was only one reason Saber reasons that this Servant would want from his past-self: it is to prepare the boy for a life a cold heroism, to impart to him knowledge of the future to save the highest number of lives with the least number of deaths.

So this was a gamble. A mind game to mentally confuse her mind of steel opponent and grant herself a moment to counterattack.

First was by declaring that she knew his identity.

The waves of swords still.

Second was by showing that she could use Tracing.

Saber traces several nameless blades and fires them with lightning speed at the possible location of the hidden Servant. The sound of heavy footstep crunching the fallen leaves alerts her to his true position and she dashes forward to attack the retreating opponent.

In the Servant's hand is a gun, he presses the trigger but the projectiles are blocked by Saber's sword. She closes in and slashes her sword, which is stopped by his own traced blades. The two Servants lock weapon with neither able to retreat or push forward.

"It is very amusing to know that the Servant before me is my Master from the future."

Third was to reinforce the given knowledge.

"You...!" the modernly-dressed Servant growls.

Fourth was to gloat that she knew what he was planning.

She spares a glance behind her, "You're just like your father, the Magus Killer, to think that you placed a bomb on that girl," the enemy does not flinch nor deny the accusation.

Fifth was to ruin that plan.

"But, you can't detonate it if your past-self is that close-by. You might injure yourself beyond hope... after all, Avalon can't heal such a deadly wound without Arturia nearby," she sneers.

Saber was certain of this. The boy called Shirou Emiya had the Noble Phantasm Avalon embedded inside him and this Servant too had it implanted inside him. It should not be possible, but here it was, another Avalon in existence due to this strange paradox. Thus, she truly was certain of this, that this future 'Shirou' would have had definitely summoned Arturia Pendragon as his Servant in his own world.

The man loses strength for a fraction of a second but that is enough for Saber to overpower him.

She kicks him in the leg and forcibly trips him. As he falls, she raises her sword to cut him down, but he flicks his arms and a series of daggers come flying out of his sleeves toward her face.

Saber blocks the projectiles and steps away; a good choice, for second he touched the ground he immediately rolls over and then hides behind a tree, leaving behind a small green gift known as a 'grenade.'

Saber clicks her tongue as she kicks the grenade high up into the air and away from her. It explodes seconds later and the earth begins to rumble.

The trees in the forest begin to crumble into different pieces and drop onto the ground in a messy fashion.

Saber had not noticed it earlier, but dozens upon dozens of trees were extremely unstable, they were precisely cut into in several places in such a constructed way that a simple knock would easily knock them down like a collapsing cavern. The explosion of the grenade had caused this chain reaction.

"Damn, you're pretty slippery, Assassin," the Servant of the Sword chuckles as she returns to her Master.

Whether this was a tactic meant to bury the opponent or allow him to escape, she couldn't tell. Whatever the case, the trap was pulled and used effectively.

[...]

Shirou shields Kuno Kishinami from the dusty winds as the trees break down and collapse. He couldn't see what was happening at all.

"SHIROKO!" he cries out to his Servant and within moments she returns no worst for wear.

"You called, Shirou?" she says whimsically.

"You're safe!" he sighs in relief, "What happened?"

Her expression becomes neutral, "Unfortunately, Assassin has escaped."

"So he's gone..." the third-rate magus stares at the forest as the dusty begins to settle.

Suddenly, Saber perks right back up.

"Well, for now we have other business to attend to," she turns to the first year student, "Now then, take off your clothes, Kuno Kishinami," she states in a commanding voice with a smile, "All of them."

"...WHAAATTTTT?!" Shirou Emiya shouts out loud.

[...]

_The twisted gears of Fate churn and churn..._

[...]

The Fifth Holy Grail War is a beautiful ritual.

A balance where the weak die and the strong survive.

A game where the heroes of old are brought forth to show humanity the ways of battle.

A climax where humans evolve through war.

An artifact to grant wishes? A certain man laughs at that idea but appreciates the irony of it.

There is no need for a wish, as long as humans fight then the desire has already been granted. Yet there is a want for a wish, leading the heroes of past and magus of present to do bloody battle for it.

That is why this man possesses a Fake Holy Grail. Though, in truth, it was just an object that could store an obscene amount of energy to open up a temporary gate to the Throne of Heroes and call forth Servants, and it was nowhere near functional enough to actually also grant a wish.

But that was still more than enough.

He needs not a wish to grant but only the method to bring forth spirits. He knows about the Holy Grail War in Fuyuki City, but he never cared about the grand wish. No, he only cared about the Heroic Spirits being bounded to human Masters. Was that not already extraordinary in of itself?

Even this mimicry of the Third True Magic should be worth a world's endless applause, yet the magus only focus on the wish-granting artifact. Absurd, how absurd and foolish, to possess all that power and yet to only use it on such a small scrabble.

The man scoffs at the previous and current participants. He believes them wasteful.

But he, he is different. With this Fake Holy Grail, he will beckon several Masters and have them call forth Servants of their own. He knows the Servants will not answer unless they can fight for the Holy Grail. But that is not a problem; was there not already another Holy Grail War in play?

These fake Masters and Servants simply have to steal the real Grail from the true competitors and prove their legitimacy.

The man laughs wildly. Would it not be funny to interrupt that farce of a ritual of theirs with utter chaos?

All is fair in love and war. All is fair in war. All is war.

This man will usurp the Holy Grail from the Mage Association's and the Church's hand.

He will take the artifact and grant his desire for perpetual war around the world.

He will ascend and humanity will grow along with him.

Through war and battle and death and loss.

With Heroic Spirits leading them.

"Let us war."

* * *

**Author Notes**

Thank you to **NewAgeOfPower** for showing me a text-based Let's Play of Fate/Stay Night! Surprisingly, Shirou makes alot of inner-remarks or comments about his daily life but is often struck dumb about the Holy Grail War and his goals. So he unfortunately seems like an idiot most of the time...

Maybe I should switch to Japanese honorifics now... Sakura saying 'Emiya' doesn't seem quite as telling as 'Senpai.'

Kuno Kishinami is from Fate/Extra. Or atleast, 'Hakuno Kishinami' is the name of the Male Protagonist according to the manga/drama cd. So I made 'Kuno' the female name. Haha, the harem increases and many hardship awaits; good luck, Shirou Emiya!

Remember Rin's friend, the one that died in the LN/survives the anime of Fate/Zero? What happened to her? What's her last name? I don't know, so here she is, Kotone Shindou at Slot 10. Also, Slot 7, 8, and 9 are then taken up from characters with suspiciously exact names and character designs to certain Tsukihime characters...

The funny thing about FSN is that you wouldn't peg Medusa and Cu Chulainn as heroes of the past with the attire they wear. Neither look Greek or Irish in any way... Nasuverse's history is pretty stylish. And Taiga Fujimura's design in this story is basically if she kept her Student 0 hairstyle from Fate/Zero all the way into Fate/Stay Night; Seriously, I love that look.

"Shirou Emiya, do you like swords?" "Yes! Yes, I do! I love them! I think about them everyday!" For some reason I have the huge urge to read (or write) a Highschool DxD and Fate/Stay Night crossover... Or just a Highschool DxD story.

I want to clear up that Saber is not Shirouko or Archerko or whatever; Original Character, in other words. And Rider is a 'Rider' in the most convoluted of ways that probably wouldn't pass a legitimate test. That said, did I revealed her Reality Marble too early? Well, I suppose Zouken deserved a decent send off...

Speaking of Reality Marbles, let's talk about Archer. I don't really recall, but I think Archer has the ability to reshape his projections into pretty much anything (that still counts as a weapon) but he generally just reshapes them into arrows (because he's an Archer). But this is what makes Archer's Reality Marble unique: he can shape his weapons as he pleases; he can make Gae Bolg look like Caliburn or he could Caliburn look like Rule Breaker.

So what I mean is that while every Servant can Trace, that is merely a side-effect of their Reality Marble's recording ability, and each Reality Marble has an additional function besides that. For example, Archer can reshape weapons and Rider can create flexible weapons at little cost for durability.

I also want to say that some of these reviews I've gotten are brilliant. Now if only we had a competent enough writer to incorporate them into this story. Then everything will be amazing.

Also, I make terrible plot twists. I'm sorry. Curse you, Fate/Strange Fake...!

_[Rewritten and uploaded on 11/6/12]_


	4. Tiger Dojo 1

**Fate Shirou**

Alternate Chapter Filler 3.5

_The Path Of Becoming A Hero!_

_Welcome_To_The_Dead_End_Shirou_Emiya_

_[TIGER DOJO 1]_

* * *

The Servant of the Sword looks up to the clock that hanged on the wall by the kitchen door. The time was almost midnight.

"Then perhaps it's time we head for bed, Shirou."

"R-Right," he yawns. The wracking pain all over his body was slowly dulling.

Walking up to the second floor of his huge old-style Japanese home, Shirou opens to the door his room and then stops.

"Ah, that's right, Shiroko, you can sleep in the room over there," he points to the room parallel to his, "Don't worry, I live alone so all the rooms here are free."

"Shirou," Saber calls, "You have had the most unusual luck of meeting four Servants besides myself today and survived. I would not be surprise if you met Caster and Assassin in your sleep before this day is over."

"Hey, what's that suppose to mean?"

"I shall be staying in your room to stand guard, of course."

"W-What?! No! You can't! Girls and boys aren't allowed sleep in the same room together!"

"I am a Servant, my Master, sleep isn't a necessity for me as it is for you. Besides, only you will be sleeping," a pause, "Or perhaps you do not want to sleep tonight, Shirou~?"

The young teenage boy turns crimson red at her tone, '_I need a way to get out of this! Something! Anything!_'

His eyes dart at everything until, "Ah," it settles on his left hand; immediately he uses up his first Command Seal.

"I command you, in the name of Shirou Emiya, to never ever sleep in the same room as me, Shiroko!"

The red sword mark shines up and then dims out as a single portion fades away.

Saber looks at her Master with a neutral expression, "Are you an idiot, Shirou?"

"I don't care what you call me, Shiroko! A man has his principles and I'm sticking to it!"

The Servant of the Sword merely huffs before walking away to her assigned room, opening the door, entering, and then closing it shut. Despite it being done gracefully with regal bearing, Shirou could tell that Saber was really mad at him.

The boy sighs, out of relief or bother he could not tell, and goes into his room to sleep the night away.

[...]

The next day, after breakfast was served...

The meal was a very quiet affair. No thanks to the instigator known as Saber.

Taiga Fujimura had quickly devoured her meal and tried snatching the food out of Saber's bowls and plates out of pure spite. However, her chopsticks were easily repelled by Saber, who revealed that she was ambidextrous enough to use chopsticks in both hands along with amazing coordination and grace, as she defended and ate her meal at the same time.

Sakura Matou and Shirou Emiya ate their food quietly, though in the girl's case she took peeking glances between Shirou and Saber. The boy had only caught it once and responded with a smile that meant everything was okay.

With that all said and done, Taiga Fujimura spent more energy on trying to steal food than she actually gained from eating that breakfast.

"Shirou... I'm still hungry!" the teacher moans.

"I'm sorry, Fuji-sis, but that's all I cooked for breakfast. I can deliver you some later at school though."

"Yes, please that do that, Shirou! The school meals suck! They're terrible!" the woman huffs matter of factly.

"Ah, well, anyways, Fuji-sis, Sakura, you two should get going or you'll be late for Archery Club."

Immediately Taiga straightens up, "I REFUSE!"

"What?"

"School isn't important, Shirou!"

'_Is it alright to have a person like this be a teacher?_'

"I can't leave you alone here or a mistake might happen!" the teacher points to Saber.

"Huh? Mistake?"

Taiga speaks more feverishly, "Yes! That's right! A mistake!" She runs to him and grabs the collars of his shirt, "The greatest mistake of your life! As a man you won't be able to take it back!" she says as she shakes him, "You'll definitely regret it, Shirou!"

'_Fuji-sis, I have no idea what you're talking about._'

"Nothing is going to happen," Saber interjects with a wicked smile, "That didn't happen last night."

If Shirou Emiya was a master at making magi palm their faces in frustration or give him funny looks, then Saber was a master at implying things with a tone that even the often thick-headed boy could feel.

The red-headed teen is blushing a furiously red. His imagination runs vividly wild before being promptly cut to pieces by imaginary weapons.

"E-Emiya..." Sakura Matou mutters silently.

Frozen cold. Taiga freezes at those words and goes pale from shock. She slowly creaks her neck as though she was a machine and stares at him with an accusing yet blank face.

"W-We didn't do anything last night!" Shirou quickly blurts out in his defense.

"That we can speak of in the company of others," his Servant immediately adds.

'_Shiroko, you...! Are you still mad at me?!_'

The guardian lets go of the boy's collar and her hands hang limply on her side. The temperature in the room drops as murderous intent emits from the being known as 'Taiga Fujimura.'

Quickly, Shirou shuffles backward and hits the wall, "F-Fuji-sis?"

An inhuman growl creeps out her throat.

'_Has the sleeping beast of Fuyuki City been awoken?!_'

"GRAWH!" roars the beast as she pounces forward to catch her prey.

Saber turns her head away as she lets the mighty beast maul her Master.

'_Don't pretend that you don't notice anything wrong here, Shiroko!_'

"HEEELLLLPPPPP!" the boy screams as he scuffles with his wild teacher.

Alas, the beast pulls out the deadly Tora Shinai, the Cursed Tiger Sword, from thin air and beats him to a bloody pulp. And Shirou Emiya was defeated within ten minutes.

"Huwha?" Taiga snaps out of her crazed trance and looks down at the injured boy, "Shirou?! What happened to you?!"

"You beat him within an inch of his life, of course," Saber replies coolly.

But unannounced to all that were there, was the fact that Shirou Emiya had fallen into a long coma. Because of this, he would fail to do the things he needed to do to reach the legendary Golden Ending.

**[DEAD END]**

* * *

_Please teach me, Taiga-sensei~!_

[...]

In a small corner of the Emiya Estate there is a small building separated from the rest.

It's name is the Tiger Dojo and it is a strange hint corner.

If you would like to reach the Golden End then please pay attention.

[...]

Polished wooden floor, an old respectable air of dignity, crisp morning air shines through the wooden.

On the plaque there is a picture of a golden sword and below it are the names of the many disciples of this dojo. Further below on the pedestal is a small sheet of paper with a single large red stamp on it.

In the center of this room lies a sleeping Shirou Emiya.

"WAKE UP!" a loud voice shouts and then something blunt hits him in the stomach.

"UGFUUU!" the boy blurts out as he jumps awake, "What?! What's going on?!" he looks up to see his guardian dressed in an unarmored kendo outfit, "Fuji-nee?"

"That's right, Shirou, it is I, Taiga-sensei! The instructor of the Tiger Dojo!"

"Tiger Dojo?"

"It's the awesome place where you get a second chance at the Golden Ending, Onii-chan~!" calls out a sweet bell-like voice.

Turning his head Shirou spots Illyasviel von Einzbern suddenly standing besides Taiga. She is dressed in an old Japanese school gym uniform that is colored purple.

"I-Illya?!"

"Yep, that's me, Onii-chan. The first student of the Tiger Dojo, codename: Buruma~!"

"...What." Shirou flatly states.

"Mou, Onii-chan, can't you be more exciting?"

"...No that is... What is going here? Wait... 'onii-chan'?"

"Is something wrong, Onii-chan?"

"Why are you calling me 'onii-chan'? Don't you mean 'big brother'?"

"Get with the program, Shirou!" Taiga jumps in with a slash to his head, "We're in the Tiger Dojo now! The rules are different here! Who cares if we're suddenly going to be using Japanese honorifics from now on?! In fact, I hereby proclaim Japanese honorifics to be used in the main storyline starting from the next chapter onward!"

"Your outbursts are too insane, Fuji-nee!" the boy shouts, "Huh... 'Fuji-nee'...?"

She smacks him with her bamboo sword again, "That's 'Fuji-sensei' to you, you idiot!" she strikes the ground with her sword and poses like a lord, "Now then, does the accused Shirou Emiya know why he is here?"

The boy in question rubs his aching head, "I feel like I'm in my dojo, yet I don't feel like I'm at my dojo at all..."

"Wrong answer!" she whacks him once more.

"Stop that!" he complains.

"Onii-chan~" Illyasviel runs off to tug at his shirt, "You're here because you made a mistake that deviates from the elusive Golden Ending~"

"I still don't understand. Mistake? Golden Ending?"

"You fool!" Taiga strikes out again but this time Shirou rolls out of the way; she continues to explain as she lashes out at him, "The Golden Ending is the legendary ending attained after tons of hard-work, diligence, and sheer persistence! It's the happy ending that any true protagonist would strive for!"

Shirou dodges another strike, "Start using words that I can understand, Fuji-nee!"

"It means you must become a hero, Shirou," a gruff but kind voice answers him.

Shirou blinks. He couldn't believe it. It couldn't be him. He was just hearing things. And yet he couldn't stop himself from turning his head around.

There, standing by the entrance of the dojo was his father, Kiritsugu Emiya, alive and well.

"Dad...?" he reaches out a hand. This couldn't possibly be anything but a hallucination, yet it felt so real, he wanted to reach out. But before his hand could touch the image of his father, Tora Shinai lands a devastating blow on his head. "OOUUUCCCCHHHHH!" he shouts as his body slams onto the wooden floor.

Tightly he kept his eyes close and feels a presence to next to him. The smell of a light smoke drifts in the air. Shirou dared not to open his eyes and break the illusion.

"...is this really happening?" was all Shirou could ask.

"Yeah, it is. So pick yourself up, Shirou, or are you going to keep lying on the floor forever?"

Weakly, he opens his eyes to see his father kneeling in front of him with his hand out. The boy reaches out his hand once more and is then brought back up to his feet.

Shirou examines his father, "You've gotten shorter, dad," he says with a light smile.

"And you're not a squirt anymore, Shirou," he retorts back with his own smirk.

Illyasviel jumps in with her arms hugging the two men's neck, "Onii-chan~! Otou-san~!" and a gentle laughter from everyone present fills up the room.

It was a good moment.

But a cough and clanking noises interrupts them.

Turning around, the group sees a knight, dressed in all black armor with white-tron like lines and adorned with green capes, waving his hand, "Ah, sorry about this, but can we continue with the Tiger Dojo?"

There was silence.

"Aha! I forgot about you!" Taiga jabs her sword at the newcomer, "Shirou, meet the author and the sponsor of this Tiger Dojo, that Nasuverse illiterate fool who hasn't even played Fate/Stay Night or seen Fate/Zero; Shintouyu!"

"Ouch, self-deprecration already?" the avatar of the author responds by typing out 'the avatar of the author responds' instead of using 'I respond,' "And fourth wall-breaking too?!"

"Uh huh," the boy nods with a blank face, as he is not privy to the backstage information.

"But he's right!" the instructor shouts, "Let's get on with this Tiger Dojo!" she runs up and grabs the teen by the collar of shirt, "Do you understand now, Shirou?! Do you understand why you must aim for the Golden Ending?!"

Shirou turns his head to his father, "...To become a hero, right?"

"That's right, Shirou. If you've reach the Golden Ending then it means that you've become a real hero."

The amateur magus nods firmly, "I want to be hero like you dad, so I'll definitely reach that Golden Ending then! Just watch me!"

"Do you think you can do that by yourself, Onii-chan~?" Illyasviel wags her finger, "You're here in the Tiger Dojo because you already failed once."

"Yeah about that... what is going on here? Nobody has explained anything to me."

"Were you not paying attention at all, you idiot?" Taiga reprimands him.

"Don't blame me, your explanations are too strange."

"Basically, the Tiger Dojo is where Shirou Emiya ends up if he makes a mistake or mistakes that would lead him astray from the Golden Ending. Essentially, Shirou Emiya must correct his mistakes before he can move on with the plot," explains the author knight.

"That's... okay. So what mistakes did I make?"

The instructor lazily waves her hand, "By being an idiot, of course," she says matter of factly.

"...That's too vague."

"What? Do I have to explain everything to you, Shirou? Go back and read Chapters 2 and 3 and figure it out yourself!"

"But Sensei~!" Buruma pouts as she wiggles her body back and forth, "If we leave it to Onii-chan to figure it out all by himself, then he'll never spot out his mistakes!"

Taiga crosses her arm with a stern expression, "You're right, Student Number One. Shirou is such a big block head that we'll never get anywhere at this rate! What a conundrum!"

Shirou Emiya lets out a deep sigh, '_Maybe I should stop trying to understand this anymore..._'

Shintouyu steps in once more, "Basically, the decision that lead to this Tiger Dojo was during the night of your talk with Saber. You used up a Command Seal to keep her away, which inadvertently led her to allowing Taiga Fujimura to maul you during breakfast the next morning. Essentially, you'll have to redo that night all over again and let Saber guard you while you sleep."

A bubble pops in the teen's head at his memories come flooding back in.

"FUJI-NEE! You killed you me!"

"That's slander and libel! I didn't raise you to be such a scoundrel, Shirou! All I did was accidentally send you into a coma!"

"That's still bad, Fuji-nee!"

The two continue to argue with each other as Illyasviel wraps up the segment.

"And that's all for Tiger Dojo 1, readers~! See you next time~!"

Two large sliding doors appear from nowhere and closes shut with a 'don' sound.

[...]

Yet some voices could still be heard over the credits.

"Well, there's no use complaining about it so much, Shirou Emiya," Shintouyu says, "Basically, you won't be remembering anything that happens here once you return to the main story. So you might make the same mistakes again anyways. Essentially, we'll be waiting for you to return to this particular Tiger Dojo several times."

"...What? WHAT?! WHHAAATTTT?!" the protagonist shouts out at the top of his lungs.

* * *

_Shirou, you idiot!_

[...]_  
_

"Hello there, readers and reviewers. This is author avatar of Shintouyu for Fate Shirou. Thank you all for reading, reviewing, favoriting, following, and other stuff," says the black knight as he somehow sips tea through his helmet.

The armored entity is sitting behind a table that has been placed in the Tiger Dojo, meanwhile the rest of the cast continues their unseen shenanigans off-screen. "This next segment is entirely dedicated to answering back to reviews. So just treat this as one giant Author Notes being unnecessarily expanded with speaking roles and minor worthless details."

The avatar puts down his cup of tea as he fiddles with the laptop on the desk.

"Okay, let's see... where to begin," he hums, "Let's start with some casual stuff."

"So why a Tiger Dojo? ...Why not? So there we have it; a Tiger Dojo," he pauses, "Er, next, well, the schedule. When is Chapter Four coming out? I don't know, I don't have a schedule for this story."

He puts a hand to his chin, "I've also done some revisions to Chapter One through Three but it's mostly just fleshing out stuff or rephrasing lines to be clearer/less awkward. Do I consider it necessary to re-read them? Personally, yes; the general outline has not changed, however, there has been plenty enough of new content that were added to all three previous chapters that _should_ warrant a re-read."

The knight scrolls the wheel of his mouse, "...And that's everything I wanted to say, actually."

He begins tapping his fingers on the desk, "So the next section of this segment will be Q&A," the knight claps his hands, "So for those of you who don't care about Author Notes, please feel free to skip the next section; it will not affect your understanding or entertainment of the main-story in any way."

The knight moves the mouse and begins clicking, "As for those of you that are continuing to read for whatever reason... You can consider this a supplementary corner. Thank you."

* * *

**[Q&A]**

'_Wait... doesn't Shirou resonate with Archer because they are basically the same person, and therefore his learning curve with regards to Tracing jumps through the roof, allowing him to utilize Unlimited Blade Works in some route? Now that there's ...nine... of him (or her...) wandering around, his skill level should get jump started like crazy. After all, there are no more heroic versions of Shirou on the planet than there are normal versions..._' - _Trascendent Oddity_

"That's exactly it!" the knight raises a finger, "They resonate because they're basically the same person. Or, at the very least, the deviation from their time-line/world/dimension is so little that they're essentially the same person. Either works in my opinion."

He takes another sip, "On the other hand, it's hard to say whether his Tracing actually speeds up or not. No, actually, his ability to Trace should improve. However, his ability to use Unlimited Blade Works, or whatever Reality Marble, will most actually become skewed due to how different they all are. So, we'll just have to wait and see whether Shirou Emiya develops UBW or something else."

[...]

'_Since all the Servants are versions of Shirou, shouldn't the soul resonance between them cause Shirou and the Servants to gain each other's memories and abilities? That means that all of them should gain a major boost to their power and skills._' - _UNTensaZangetsu_

"I can neither claim nor deny that. It's definitely a possibility."

[...]

'_Is this the creation of the harem route? It does seem like it._' - _dragon-cloud16_

Shintouyu twirls around in his chair, "Yes, Shirou is aiming for the harem route. The Golden Ending, in other words."

And takes a sip of his tea, "The original line in Chapter One's Author Note was actually just a throw-away. I had literally discovered that all the Masters, besides Shirou Emiya, had ended up being female and that was simply me commenting on that startling revelation," he gives a thumbs up, "And there's nothing wrong with that, nothing at all; because Shirou Emiya is really going for gold now!"

[...]

'_Is Shiroko born as a girl? If so then she's different from Shiroko doujin, where she is Shiro with Ilya's body. In this fic she acts more like Archerko._' - _5117_

"Saber/Shiroko is an Original Character and was born a girl," the author hopefully answers clearly.

[...]

'_The only thing I'd suggest you do is proofread. No major spelling problems, just grammar._' - _Farmer Kyle_

The knight approves of this comment, "Indeed. It's like every time I re-read a chapter, I keep finding out the littlest of mistakes that I didn't notice the first several times proof-reading."

[...]

'_This, while crack, has some inconsistencies with the Nasuverse canon, but is pretty good. Anyway if you need too know anything about the Nasuverse you can ask me. You could also ask Logan Murderer of Crows, he would probably be glad to help._' - _Grey Master of Ice and Muji_

"I'll keep that in mind," the avatar answers.

[...]

'_Wouldn't the synchronization of 7 Heroic Spirit Shirou make regular Shirou ridiculously powerful? In FSN Shirou gained an incredible boost just by being around Archer._' - _ChaosConnor_

The author hums, "It depends on what and how Shirou Emiya develops, but that should be the case."

[...]

'_I figure having all the Shirous summon the same Saber despite being different people is a little out there._

_Oh, if you really want to spice this up then think about this: Caster summoned a Servant during the 5th Grail War and all of the Servants in this Grail War are 'Magus'. Although having them summon yet more versions of themselves would be kinda stupid... and I don't think any Shirou (except maybe a truly evil one) would summon a Servant just so it would fade away a few days later like Fake Assassin did... then again, mana transfering... hmm... ah, well its an idea. Maybe have the Grail go 'F*ck it, you want heroes, here have the entire throne!' ...That was a joke in case you missed it._' - _ShadowAngelBeta_

Shintouyu refills his cup of tea before answering.

"In fact, that's more or less what happened. Well, a majority of them had Arturia Pendragon/Blue Saber," the knight takes a sip, "So it went like this: Lancer summoned a Black Lancer (who is Arturia). Berserker summoned a Black Saber. Saber, Archer, and Saver summoned a Blue Saber. Rider summoned a White Saber. Assassin summoned an Assassin Bloody Mary. Caster summoned a Saber Tomoe Gozen. And Avenger summoned a Lancer Karna. So out of the nine Shirou Servants, three of them didn't summon an Arturia Pendragon variant."

The author does a huge spit-take after reading the next part.

"This is genius," he declares, "Since this is a crack-fic, sarcasm will be treated as extremely viable options. That said, we'll just have to wait and see if any of the Shirou realizes this possibility first."

[...]

'_Will Shirou train his magic soon as he knows what it does?_' _- kroz phantomville_

"Eventually, yes."

[...]

'_No, Archer can't freely reshape his swords, he just alters them to make them more aerodynamic, sharper, etc. Basically, he has versions of certain weapons memorized as pseudo-arrows to reduce the strain on his bow and to increase their effectiveness long range. It also makes breaking them much more convenient._

_Anyways, if all of the versions of Shirou took different paths in regards to how they developed their talent, then wouldn't the resonance effect start to impart all of these different paths to him?_' - _Transcendent Oddity_

Taking of sip of his tea, the author reads this review.

"To clarify, I believe that Unlimited Blade Works allows Archer to interfere with the design-phase during Step 2 of Tracing, so he can reshape weapons as he pleases, however he tends to create arrows because he favors his archery skills. That also means that just because he shape x into y doesn't mean its a good idea, and it takes a considerable amount of experimentation to find the right shape for each particular blade as to not compromise their strengths."

He cups down his cup of tea, "Of course, that's just my take on making UBW more unique/flexible from the other reality marbles that these Shirou will possess. But whether Archer takes advantage of this... The answer is no; he is definitely not a character who tries to overstep his boundaries and will instead play to his strengths and experiences that he already spent his lifetime to perfect."

The knight nods, "Yes, that's right, the differences in resonance will produce entirely unexpected results for Shirou Emiya. Well, that's assuming I make good plot-twists..."

[...]

'_I'm a little worried about the antagonist of your story since you already killed Zouken and so a lot of potential tension is gone, but then again this seems to be more comedic so maybe that's a good thing._' - _Splout_

"...Chessmaster Zouken is dead?" the author does a spit-take and responds incredulously before wiping the screen with a napkin, "Anyways, Zouken Matou technically only mattered in the Heaven's Feel route; the most devious one of them all. So really, only one route is gone, and that's assuming that this story will be following one specific route.

With that said, this story will have plenty of comedy... however to achieve the Golden Ending, Shirou Emiya will have plenty of hardships ahead of him, and it will definitely involve more than just making sure the girls get along with each other.

So expect drama! Or something."

[...]

'_It would be better if you switched to Japanese honorifics._' - _kroz phantomville_

"Duly noted," the knight approves, "Chapter Four and onward will be using Japanese honorifics."

[...]

'_Indeed, Sakura called Shirou as 'Emiya' felt weird. Like they were just merely acquaintances._' - _Liddle_

"My original choices were 'Emiya,' 'Senior,' or 'Upperclassman,' and the closest one was in tone was Senior," the author notes, "Though I choose Emiya because of the formality aspect, and also because senior might be confused for the other senior."

[...]

'_Why do people take the easy way out by killing Shinji all of the time? He is just as much a victim as Sakura, while Sakura is an actual monster/abomination._' - _dragoon109_

The author knight takes a sip of his tea, "That's pretty much true if we get down to the very core of the issue. However, the amount of sympathy and respect that Shinji invokes is generally very little," and clasps his hand together, "As for whether killing Shinji Matou constitutes as taking the easy way out... it probably is. There is always a chance for Shinji to be reformed, but, unfortunately for him, he had to meet Rider..."

[...]

'_I'm kinda sad that there are so many male Shirou. It reduces the harem count. The Shiroko better be in the harem. These Fake Servants and Masters are also intriguing. Will there be more Shirou or some of the normal Servants? Will they hopefully all be female, Master and Servant alike?_' - _nonwritten_

The avatar puts a hand to his chin and has a contemplating look about him.

"Well, they couldn't all be female Shirou... As for whether any of the female Shirou are part of the harem, well, Rider and Saber are probably off-limits. Avenger and Caster are a maybe.

As for the other Masters and Servants, I will declare that no more alternate Shirou will appear unless Ruler somehow gets summoned by the Greater Holy Grail; and that would be it, really. Any other summoning by the Shirou themselves or the Illegitimate Grail will result in our normal Nasuverse Servants... or 'Fictional-types' like Fake Assassin was.

Anyways, it would be indeed amusing to make another group of all female pairing, but I'm not going to do that."

[...]

Shintouyu waves his hand, "And that's the end of this Author Note. See you all next time!"


	5. Girls And Shirou

**Fate Shirou**

Chapter Four

_Does This Look Like The Start Of A Harem?!_

_[GIRLS AND SHIROU]_

* * *

**Previously on Fate Shirou:** _The Peaceful Time Of Planning, Plotting, Playing, And Personal Life!_

Misaya Reiroukan is tucked into bed by Lancer! Caster teases Luviagelita Edelfelt! Archer cleans Rin Tohsaka's house! Bazett Fraga McRemitz talks with Avenger! Saver forces Kuno Kishinami to become his Master! And Rider kills Shinji Matou and Zouken Matou?!

Shirou Emiya dreams about weapons, and graves, and thrones! But is then awoken by Taiga Fujimura's scream for help! Saber claims herself to be Shirou's fiancee and breakfast is eaten! Taiga awakens as the Slumbering Beast of Fuyuki City but is promptly knocked out!

Shirou and Saber form an alliance with Sakura Matou and Rider! And then another alliance at school with Luviagelita and Caster and Rin and Archer! Manaka Sajyou comes to the conclusion that she wants Shirou Emiya?!

Shirou is approached by Kuno and vows to save her! Saber battles Saver, mistakes him as Assassin, and then he escapes! Next Saber orders Kuno to strip!

All the meanwhile a mysterious person plans to interfere with the Fifth Holy Grail War by using his Fake Holy Grail to call forth more Masters and Servants?!

**This time on Fate Shirou:** _Does This Look Like The Start Of A Harem?!_

* * *

"Where is that idiot?" Rin Tohsaka muttered softly.

The prodigy magus was waiting with the Edelfelt Head outside the Archery Club's dojo. They had yet to pick up Sakura Matou because it wouldn't be easy to approach her, without raising her suspicions or her guard, if her ally the red-haired boy wasn't here.

"What's taking him so long?" she huffed some more, "Doesn't he know it's rude to make a girl wait?"

"It is strange," Luviagelita answered, "Shirou has always been one for punctuality," but she sighed in her mind, _'Though, he does have a tendency to become engrossed in helping others to the point that he forgets his previous obligations...'_

It was already twenty minutes afterschool and neither had seen the boy since lunch.

Nearly five minutes passed before Luviagelita spoke again.

"Shirou might have run into another Master," she stated lightly tensed.

Rin's mind quickly analyzed the situation. Misaya and Lancer were unlikely to start anything at school during the day and Illyasviel and Berserker were still most likely recovering. The only unknown remaining was Assassin...

"Yeah, it's a definite possibility that he's gotten himself into some kind of trouble," she replied, "I wouldn't be surprised if he already is."

A loud explosion and the sound of massively falling objects roared from the forest far on the other side of the school. The noise was not necessarily loud from their distance but it was clearly unnatural.

The two magus shared a look with one another.

"Edelfelt, go and check it out. I'll catch right up after getting Matou-san."

Luviagelita nodded and ran and then commanded her Servant to travel ahead in Astral Form. Meanwhile Rin turned around and headed for the archery dojo.

[...]

_Trace On!_

[...]

Shirou Emiya's cheeks were burning.

He was standing ram-rod straight because right behind him, just standing right behind his back, his underclasswoman, Kuno Kishinami, was practically naked save for her undergarments. He could hear the girl delicately squeak as the Servant of the Sword's hands roamed all over her body. _'Why are you torturing me like this, Shiroko?!'_ he gulped, _'Think of something else, Shirou! Think happy thoughts! Think! Of! Cooking!'_

Saber watched in amusement as her Master fidgeted about at the slightest of noise but the Servant's attention was ultimately focused on the girl before her.

The girl was doll-like, not in the same level as Illyasviel von Einzbern, but there was definitely a quality to this girl that seemed refined or processed. It was shame that her beauty was being marred by the two unsightly bombs strapped onto her belly and behind her neck.

"Command on," she quietly said as she activated Structural Analysis. The explosives were deadly but not impossible to tamper with, so she worked precisely at disrupting and removing the devices whilst chatting, "Girl, how did you become involved in this?"

Kuno was silent for a moment, "I was threatened last night."

"Ah, I see, so you haven't been with him long?"

"No."

"That's good. You're rather lucky that he didn't have enough time to prepare a more permanent trap on you. If that was case then I would surely have left you for dead." Saber's word caused the girl's body to tense.

"Shiroko!" her Master shouted out in an admonishing tone and he had almost turned around to do so but stopped himself short of the action.

The Servant glimpsed at the girl's hand and noticed the fading Command Seals, _'Rule Breaker and a high-grade Independent Action, huh? What a troublesome Servant. He's going to be fairly bothersome to deal with later then.'_ She smiled, "How fortunate for you that isn't the case then. But you still have a problem, girl."

Kuno blinked, "What is it?"

"Assassin is not one to leave behind loose ends," she stated simply.

"Wait, Kishinami-san is still in danger?" Shirou cut in.

Saber hummed, "Of course. Leave her alone for a day and you'll most certainly find her dead the next." The girl did not outwardly show it but there was dread in her eyes from hearing that. "There, all finished," the Servant smirked as she tossed the bombs far away. Two swords materialized in the air and pinned the explosives onto a tree, rendering the instruments of destruction even further useless. "You can get dress now." Kuno Kishinami hastily picked up her fallen clothing and began putting them on; the chilling winds were rather discomforting. "So, do you understand the kind of danger you're in, girl?"

The brown-haired teen paused, "I do," she answered quietly.

"Good, then do you understand the simplest way of keeping yourself safe?"

Kuno tilted her head and slowly shook it. She highly doubted that the police of Fuyuki City could keep her safe from whatever abnormalities she had just witness and she didn't think for a second that they would believe her words about being stalked by a magical killer.

The Servant of the Sword happily grinned at her reaction, "That, of course, is to be under the protection of someone willing and capable enough to assist you," she nudged Shirou's back with an elbow, "Isn't that right, my Master?"

"R-Right!" the amateur magi jolted, "There's no way I can abandon her! Not while she's in danger!" he almost turned around but stopped himself once again, "Kishinami-san, I'll definitely protect you!"

"...Thank you, Emiya-senpai."

"Excellent!" Saber chirped, "Then from now you'll be living with us, girl!"

"H-Huh?!" the two humans stuttered together.

The woman bemusingly smirked, "You better start thinking up an explanation for Fujimura now, Shirou. And you," she turned to Kuno, "should start making up an excuse for your family."

"W-What?!" the two said in unison again.

Saber did not answer them and noted something else, "Ah, it seems that an ally has arrived."

Caster soon casually strolled out of the forest and spoke in monotone, "An interesting development; a rival has appeared."

"Whose that? Caster?" Shirou asked and turned his head around but then immediately stiffened, "Ah..." as he discovered that Kuno Kishinami had yet to button up her top.

"Senpai, stop looking and turn around," Kuno coldly spoke to him despite her rather even tone that was as flat as Caster's.

He answered with a _HRUK_ before quickly reeling his head with a snap and swiftly changed the subject, "C-Caster, what are you doing here?"

"To investigate the source of a nearby disturbance," she stated matter of factly, "I see that you are safe, boy. Good, Master would be unhappy if you were injured," she paused as she looks over the fallen trees, "That is quite the scene." It was not quite as showy as how most battles of Servants would go but a clearing with dozens of fallen trees was not inconspicuous enough to call a natural phenomenon either. Well, it wasn't their problem, so Caster could care less of the clean-up.

"Well, explanations can be given as soon our newly formed alliance arrives," Saber waved a hand.

The Servant of the Spells lazily nodded, "My Master will be here soon. As will be Rin Tohsaka and Sakura Matou shortly after."

"I see. Then, in the meantime, I have something else to sort out," Saber folded her arms in a relaxed manner, "Shirou, now would be a good time to explain to the girl about the basics of the occult."

"Is that alright?" he asked weakly.

"It would be more dangerous for her not to know. Besides, it'd be for her own safety to learn about just what kind of world she has been forcibly dragged into."

"...Right," Shirou nodded after some thinking and turned to face Kuno, "Kishinami-san... this might be hard to believe but what I'm about to tell you is the absolute truth." She silently nodded at his serious expression and he continued, "I am a magus."

[...]

Some distance away from the debris of fallen tress, the humans and Servants are gathered to exchange information and finalize their alliances. On one side was Rin Tohsaka, Luviagelita Edelfelt, Caster, and the astralized Archer. On the other was Shirou Emiya, Saber, Kuno Kishinami, Sakura Matou, and the astralized Rider.

Brief greetings were exchanged before business began.

"So, Emiya-san, what happened here?" Rin questioned him in a muted expression.

"Ah, well, I went to save Kishinami-san and was ambushed by Assassin."

"Imagine your Archer except with a black duster and a preference for modern weapons such as gun. Though he is still capable of Tracing," Saber provided.

"Why would Assassin want to kill you, Shirou?" Luviagelita asked with a hint of concern.

"That's is not Assassin's goal at all," the Servant of the Sword answered, "He most certainly has yet to realize that this world is not his past," she chuckled, "If you could change the events of the past for what you believe to be the better, would not you do so?"

"I see, so that's his goal, huh?" Rin stated her theory, "He wanted to team-up with his past self and direct the outcome of the war to a more favorable ending."

"That's correct," Saber confirmed her words, "Now, a word of warning to you all. Unlike my kind Master here, Assassin is without mercy. He will kill you swiftly if given the opportunity and there will be no compromising with him. He is that sort of individual."

Rin and Luviagelita nodded firmly while Sakura did so uneasily.

"As expected of someone placed into the class of Assassin," Caster commented off-hand.

The Tohsaka Head slowly closed her eyes and reopened them, "The next question, I suppose, is what to do we do with Kishinami-san then?"

Shirou explained, "Since there's a huge possibility that Kishinami-san is still a target for Assassin, and since it was my fault that she got involved, I've offered her to stay at my place until the war is over."

"Wait," Luviagelita interjected, "S-She'll be living in your house from now, Shirou?"

"It would be dangerous if Saber and I can't keep a close eye on her," he answered.

"O-Oh..." the Edelfelt's shoulders slumped. It was then that Caster moved in close to her Master and to whispered something privately and Luviagelita began to seriously contemplate the wisdom of her Servant's idea.

"Um, Senpai, what about Fujimura-sensei?" Sakura pointed out a potential problem with the co-habitance.

"I'll... think of something," Shirou scratched the back of his head, _'Like not cooking for her ever again if she doesn't accept...'_ and then perked up, "Ah, that's right, I wanted to ask you this later but, Sakura, you can stay at my place too. I'd feel much better knowing that you're safe by my side," he honestly offered, which made his junior blink in surprise with a mutter.

"P-Please give me a moment to think," Sakura quietly said as she slightly lowered in head in thought to the invitation. She very much wanted to stay at his place because she so dearly loved her Senpai; just being by his side everyday would be the greatest blessing she could ever imagined for herself. She felt a little guilt that a sinful person like her was being given this opportunity of bliss but quickly pushed away that negative pulse. She was going to accept, as there reason for her not to. _'I need to ask grandfathe-'_ and then she paused.

Zouken Matou and Shinji Matou were no longer home.

This morning Sakura had awoken to no other presence than Rider at the Matou Estate and her Servant merely informed her that her brother and grandfather had apparently moved out during the night to avoid the potential crossfire of the war.

All of that explanation was completely faulty.

Rider was hiding something her, she could tell. Nothing was gone from the house, as though Shinji and Zouken had simply up and left the place with packing, and the timing of their movement was both too sudden without preparation and too late at night to be true at all. Her brother would not have left alone without a few choice words and a final nighttime visit and grandfather was the patriarch of the Matou Family and would have dictated her every move in the 5th Holy Grail War.

The two of them of simply couldn't have left or disappeared. What happened? Rider must have done something. Did her Servant ki-

"Sakura?" Shirou called out at the spacing out girl and she uttered a sound surprised, "If you're troubled then you can refuse. I won't mind."

"N-No, that isn't it, Senpai," she shook her to clear her thoughts and clarify, "I'll be really happy to stay at your place." Later, she could dwell about the implications later...

Shirou smiled back at her, "That's great."

"Ahem," Luviagelita drew attention to herself, "Shirou, we are allies, correct?"

"Um, right," he answered.

"Then would it not be fine if I was also allowed to stay at your place then?"

"...Okay...?"

"Wonderful, I'll pack my stuff and move in tomorrow," the blond girl nodded with a pleased expression.

Rin Tohsaka folded her arms, "Emiya-san, I'll be moving in tomorrow, so prepare a space for me too."

"W-Why?" Luviagelita and Sakura queried in unison.

"I'll be teaching Emiya-san how to utilize his magic circuits amongst other things, so it would be more convenient for me to stay at his place," she answered, _'And to keep an eye on you two,'_ she left unsaid.

"There will be no need, I can teach him on my own," the Edelfelt Head briskly retorted.

Rin smirked, "Oh? How about a wager, Edelfelt? Let's see which one of us is the better teacher then." It was always such a hassle for her to compete with her rival but she would lying if she said that she didn't enjoy it either.

"I can get behind that. Very well, I'll show you just how much of a genius I am, Tohsaka!" Luviagelita laughed; She didn't even bother to ask what was being wagered, not that there was anything. Though, for Tohsaka this was just so she wouldn't need to take the entire burden of teaching Shirou alone.

"Excuse me," Kuno interrupted, "The person you're calling Assassin... he said his name was Saver."

The magus' turned and looked at each other.

"Saver?" Shirou asked and Kuno nodded.

Saber quirked a brow as she accessed information from the Holy Grail and then smiled, "Well, it seems that the war has just become a lot more complicated."

"What do you mean?" Tohsaka questioned with a sinking feeling in her chest.

Caster tilted her head as she too requested the appropriate information from the Holy Grail, "Oh dear," she said blankly, "the rules have changed."

"They've _what_?!" Rin raised her voice.

The Servant of the Spells continued nonchalantly, "There are two additional Servants to this war now: Saver and Avenger."

"Two...?" Luviagelita muttered as she took in the information.

"You have got to be kidding me," Rin almost growled as she began tapping her foot on the ground. She accessed her inner-compendium, an ability similar to the Servant's information-accessing that is also granted by the Grail, and then actually let loose her growl. The last time she had check there was only seven slots, now there were nine of them. "Two servants... two whole new servants...!" The twin-tailed girl swore under her breath.

Shirou noticed her behavior, "Um, Tohsaka-san are you al-"

"That's it, we're leaving!" Rin shouted to the whole group. "We're going to the Kotomine Church right now and we're going to get some answers from that god-damn fake priest!"

[...]

Kirei Kotomine kneeled in prayer in front of his altar. It was a simple ritualistic gesture to him, no more and no less, a habit he had acquired since he was a priest for the church. He did this everyday, passing the time slowly as he waited for different, perhaps interesting, things to occur.

It seem that he would not need to wait long.

The door of the church burst open as his young ward and apprentice, Rin Tohsaka, strutted in, along with several two other teenagers and two hidden but spiritually powerful entities, with a very noticeable scowl on her face. Oh, this was interesting to him; perhaps she has finally figured out that there are more than seven Servants and she was now going to interrogate him?

"Welcome to the Kotomine Church, lost lambs. What may I do for you on this fine day?" Kirei greeted the group flatly but politely.

"Shut it, you fake priest!" Rin growled at him.

"Hoh? You truly are a disrespectful student, Rin," he commented blandly before turning to the other two with a smile, "I am Kotomine Kirei, the priest of this church. And you two are?"

"Luviagelita Edelfelt," the head of the family replied with a curtsy.

The red-haired teen took a slight step back, "Um, Emiya Shirou, sir."

Emiya Shirou? Emiya? Kirei stared at the boy. Coincidence? Fate? To think that man's son was participating in this war too... This greatly amused him.

"Skip the pleasantries, Kirei!" the Tohsaka Head cut in and took his attention again, "Why didn't you tell me, Kirei?!"

"And now what would that be?" the man almost hummed.

"You know damn well of what I mean! Why are there nine Servants in this war?!"

"Ah, yes," he smiled again, it was very close to a smirk or a grin, "It was because you did not ask, Rin. As you know, I am the Supervisor of the Fifth Holy Grail War, and as such I am to remain neutral. I cannot directly go out of my way to assist an Master, they must come to me asking for assistance. That is, if it is still within my limits as a supervisor, of course."

"Don't dodge the question you fake priest. Why are there nine Servants?" the twin-tailed girl repeated more calmly.

Kirei nodded, "I do not know." He gained a small amount of satisfaction looking at his apprentice's dumb-founded expression. "Something like this has never occurred before in the past Grail Wars and I'm afraid that I do not have answer why it has happened here."

"Excuse me," Luviagelita intoned lightly, "You are the Supervisor are you not, Kotomine-san? Then should you not do something about it?"

"I have indeed chosen to take action, Edelfelt." The three young Masters looked at him intently. "I have decided to allow these two extra Servants to participate in this Holy Grail War."

"What," Rin spat out flatly. Oh joy, it was ages since he had seen the girl so flustered. "What the heck are you thinking, Kirei?!"

He placed a hand on his chest, "I am but a supervisor. My only role is to ensure that the secrecy of magic is kept intact and that the war does not erupt beyond Fuyuki City's borders. It is not place to interfere should the Grail allow two or more Servants to be summoned," the priest spread his arms open, "Indeed, is it not up to the Masters and Servants to deal with their own? If you all truly desire the Holy Grail then you should accept such a simple development like this and handle it as you deem fit." Kirei put down his arms and placed them behind his back, "Now, will that be all? Or is something else you need?"

Rin Tohsaka huffed and turned to look at Shirou Emiya, "Well, since we're already here, I guess I can have you act like a proper supervisor and teach _this_ beginner about everything on the Holy Grail War."

"I see," the priest faced the boy, "Let us start."

It would be a long explanation. One that lasted long enough into night due to Shirou arguing with the Priest, Rin bantering with Kirei, and Luviagelita occasionally cutting in to ask questions or make remarks of her own. At the end of it all, Shirou, Rin, and Luviagelita would leave feeling very unpleasant because of Kirei's calm demeanor.

"Farewell," Kirei said to the leaving group as they exited the church.

But one entity remained behind. She had almost white-hair with golden eyes and was dressed in red armor and garbed in black revealing clothing. She smiled at him teasingly before astralizing and disappearing from view.

"Hmm..." Kirei Kotomine hummed to himself. Those teasing eyes reminded him of Avenger that Bazett had summoned. The man lightly chuckled, "If two Servants are wary of me, then it seems that I must watch my back now."

[...]

The moment the group stepped out from the church they felt a terrible tension in the air. Walking down the steps, they quickly rejoined the two girls that they had left outside - Sakura and Kuno.

Rider materialized and spoke, "A battle has broken out only a short while ago, we can be there in five minutes if we head out now."

The group looked at each other whilst wondering who the participants were. Of the remaining Servants, there was only Assassin, Avenger, Lancer, and Saver, that were unaccounted for.

"Well, there's no point in waiting around. Let's go and have a look," Rin suggested. Other than Berserker - who was still healing - there was no other Servant that could possibly threaten this four-Master-alliance on their own; after all this alliance was created specifically to handle Berserker. "Lead the way."

The white-haired Servant glared at the girl for a moment before turning away and then ran off to the location of the nearby battle.

[...]

_The twisted gears of Fate churn and churn..._

[...]

As Rin Tohsaka, Luviagelita Edelfelt, and Shirou Emiya conversed with Kirei Kotomine, another Master and Servant pair made their way to the Kotomine Church.

"Are you sure, Avenger?" Bazett asked as she quietly made her way toward her destination, "This could be a trap." Her Servant had informed her that she had sensed several other Servants gathering at the Kotomine Church. Though what placed her on edge was that none of them were fighting; which didn't bode well for her if they were all allies.

The Servant still clad-in-priest-clothing giggled, "Even if I were to be attacked by three others or more, it would not be a problem for me to handle," she stated confidently. "But if you are uncertain then the least we can do is learn the faces of our targets~"

Bazett Fraga McRemitzz agreed about scouting out the competition, she still wasn't sure how strong her Servant was and wanted to avoid what was most likely an overwhelming battle, but she couldn't deny that this was also a great opportunity for her to identify the other Masters and, if she was lucky, the other Servants as well.

"E-EH?! What are you doing, Avenger?!" Bazett yelped as her Servant's arm wrapped around her waist.

The dark-haired woman let go and smirked, "Ready yourself, Master." The Servant casually stepped before her human partner, meanwhile Bazett narrowed her eyes and prepared herself in a fighting stance at the warning; the runes on her clothing were ready to give her Reinforcement.

"Aw, and here I thought I could ambush you by hiding under the presence of the other Servants." A smirking raven-haired girl with orange-red eyes stepped into the pair's view. "Well, fighting head-on isn't so bad either, I guess." A man wielding a black spear appeared next to her.

"Misaya Reiroukan," Bazett called out the girl's name. Though no one could say why exactly a person was chosen as a Master, there were general patterns that were discovered from the past wars; one such thing was either living in Fuyuki City, resident magus had a higher chance of being chosen alongside with the Founding Families who started the Grail Wars. It was no surprise to Bazett that one of the better magus living in Fuyuki City was a participant in this war. "Lancer," she added.

[...]

Misaya giggled, "Hear that, Lancer? We're famous!"

"Hah, whatever you say, Master," the Servant of the Spear replied dryly. He was tense in combat mode as the female Servant gave him chills that not even the raging Berserker had manage to do. _'Something's wrong...' _There was something familiar about the other Servant and he couldn't figure out what exactly it was that bothered him.

Even Misaya was a little unnerved by the nun-garbed Servant but she was not about to back-down anytime soon.

The black Servant pinched the hems of her robe as she gave a curtsy, "My name is Avenger," _'Avenger?'_ and smiled wickedly, "and you are _dead_."

Lancer gasped as his body reacted instinctively to danger and dodged a projected weapon that was aimed to pierce his chest. He materialized the white Bakuya and hurled the twin spears toward the enemy Servant, immediately he grabbed his Master by the waist and retreated.

The Servant Of The Spear panted heavily, he had never felt such impending doom since his second encounter with The Wolf Of Ulster and his Gae Bolg; The Beheading Blade, as his minded sorted out the black weapon meant to take his life.

_**CURSESCREAMHATREDMALICEPOISO NEVILFILTHANGERLOSSDEATHMAYH EMSCARIFICETORTUREWRETCHEDRO TFEAR-**_

The nameless blade screamed and struggled in his mind as his Inner World catalogued the blood-thirsty tool. The weapon held no history, only existing the moment it was called forth, yet it already contained so much ill-will.

Lancer shivered as the a memory of an opponent he wanted to forget came to his lips... "Angra Mainyu...?" A Zoroastrianism spirit of evil that had lurked behind the veil of the Holy Grail back in his own world and war. He had never fought the _thing_ personally, as he was busy fighting the King Of Heroes, Gilgamesh, at the time, but during the Dismantling Of The Holy Grail War that came years after, Lancer had fought many corrupted Servants.

It was a bloody war.

One side wanted the removal of the system, the other side wished to keep and tamper with it, and the Grail - corrupted by Angra Mainyu - wished to spread its evil. It was no wonder that the other side was assisted by the Grail, as it allowed them to summon Servants to fight for them. The Servants were but mere shadows of their former selves - extremely small fragments to support their great numbers - but they were still pieces of a Heroic Spirit nonetheless, and that did not even include the extra boost a 'Master' could give with their Command Seals.

They were a deadly force and Lancer was one of the few who could even oppose them head-on.

It was also that very war that had taken Lancer's life.

His ability to Trace meant he had nearly every weapon for every situation and could counter every one of his opponent with ease. Thus, the corrupted Servants surrounded and ambushed him. Worn out, the fatal blow came from behind, courtesy of Joan of Arc.

If the Throne Of Heroes had not want Lancer for his Reality Marble, then certainly by then his heroics would have cemented his spot in the Throne Of Heroes as someone who had defeated more Servants than recorded history.

"Lancer, what's wrong?" Misaya asked, even she had only glimpsed at the black sword and she was already shaken.

"Angra Mainyu, huh...?" Avenger smiled nonchalantly, "I'm afraid that I do not go by that name, Lancer."

Another black blade flew toward the male Servant which he barely deflected with his own traced projectile.

_'ANGRA MAINYU!'_ How did the Persian God of Darkness get into this war? The entire point of the Fifth Holy Grail was Angra Mainyu taking form because of Gilgamesh's schemes. But, even before that, this war should only have had seven Servants, and even further before that was that all the Servants should have been a 'Shirou.' "I won't let you live!" shouted out Lancer, he would not retreat and leave Avenger unchecked; solving the mysteries could come later.

But Misaya's safety came first, "Master, you must retreat." He could not go all out if had to protect her while fighting.

"And what? Miss the awesome show?"

"Master," Lancer intoned more seriously, "Please."

The girl was simply silent before yawning, "Fine, fine, do whatever you want, Lancer. Don't come crawling to me when you need my help."

"Thank you, Misaya."

The girl whimsically pouted, "Don't say my name so informally like that all of sudden, _Shirou~_" and then she left the battlefield.

Lancer projected another pair of his spears, Bakuya and Kanshou, and glared hard at the other Servant, "Why didn't you attack?" He had kept Avenger at her Master within view and saw how the Servant had kept the well-dressed woman from acting.

"It doesn't matter to me whether your Master escapes or not," the black Servant politely answered.

"I see, so I'm your only target, huh?" Lancer smirked, "That's good, because you're my only target right now too," the Servant of the Spear prepares himself into a defensive stance, "I don't plan on holding myself back!"

Wicked blades appeared in the end, the barrage of cursed steel wished to end his life as they streak through the air. The spearman chanted his aria amidst dodging and parrying the sharp weapons. His superb concentration was honed through many battles, something as simple as this storm of weapons would not be enough to break it.

"I am the bone my spear! Steel is my body and fire is my blood!" He knocked away twelve blades. "I have created over ten-thousands of spears!" He ducked low and jerked his neck. "Unknown to death, nor known to life! Have withstood battles to create many weapons!" He projected his own Noble Phantasms to prevent her from herding him. "But these hands will never falter!" He stood his ground. "So, all I believe in: Unlimited Spear Works!"

Flames erupted from Lancer and engulfed the surrounding world. The world changed to a darkened place, the dull colored-earth held multiple spears and other weapons jutting out from the ground, and the skies were filled with large silent cog-and-gear wheels. The atmosphere itself seemed to be ready to bestow a heavy storm at any moment.

The black swords stopped.

Only Avenger and Lancer were in this battlefield.

"Heh~ So this is a Reality Marble? It's my first time seeing one," Avenger mused in delight.

Lancer pointed Kanshou at the female Servant, "Is it now? Well, take in the view... because this is your first and last visit!" The winds kicked up as the sky darkened all around.

"Hoh?" the black Servant smiled as she moved to her right as a spear pierced into the ground from where she was previously standing. Peeking her eyes up, she could see that it was literally raining Noble Phantasms, dropping out of the sky like raindrops. "How scary," she said and her red and gold eyes seem to gleam in the dark. The Servant of the Vengeance nimbly dodge the coming attacks with the grace of a Lancer.

She twisted her neck, she lifted her arms and legs, she bent and leaned her body. Her fabric is cut and her skin is lightly pierced, but all of it is superficial and easily ignored. She smiled at the Servant of the Spear's attempts to harm her. "Come on, Lancer. Thrust harder~"

Lancer growled and swung right and swung left, jabbed and stabbed, dashed and pounced. But he could not touch her and the Servant of the Vengeance merely danced around him, her black blades protecting her from his storm of spears from above.

She was toying with him and he knew it.

Lancer snarled with a grin, "If you insist!" and threw the married spears together as he rushed forward and plucked two weapons off the hard ground. He approached Avenger with large but precise steps and thrusts out the spear in his right hand, the tip of the spear thinly cuts the Servant's neck as she danced around, his left followed quickly nicked her cheek.

His attacks connected more often and cut deeper than before. But still, Avenger merrily accumulated the small scratches without concern.

"Is that all you can do, Lancer~?" the female Servant taunts.

The Servant of the Spear smirked. Several spears dropped behind Avenger and gave her pause; that was all he needed. "ENKIDU!"

Chains erupt from nowhere and bounded the Servant of the Vengeance. If she was indeed Angra Mainyu, the Persian God of Darkness, then her own Divinity - lowered or not - would strengthen the chains to ensnare her even more tightly.

A spear fell down the sky in his path and Lancer snatched it on the move. It was white, gold, and blue, a weapon forged by the fairies, the holy spear: Excalibur. He could not think of a better weapon to eliminate the possible-Angra Mainyu with.

"Ah, how troublesome, I might accidentally kill my Master now..." Avenger muttered apologetically with a sigh and then stared straight at her incoming killer.

"EXACALIBUR!" Lancer roared.

And Avenger declared, "JUDGMENT!"

A sudden dark red power coincided with the golden energy released by the holy sword.

The battle was settled as the Reality Marble was destroyed.

[...]

The grove of trees under the moonlight, the thick silence of the air hung around the empty streets, there was a battle here but it has seemed to disappeared. There were three here but there were only two now.

The Servant of the Vengeance merely hummed without care as she looked at Bazett, "Oh dear, it seems that you're in great pain, Master."

"A...ven...ger...!" the woman growled out in a hoarse but accusing voice. Her appearance was disheveled and her were fingers gripped in deep into her arms.

The Servant placed a hand on Bazett's forehead and giggled, "Ah, I must have used too much prana forcibly, you almost cooked yourself alive, Master."

Bazett grit her teeth and glared at the Servant. The pain was so intense that she had wanted to claw out her own throat and felt like her skin was about to peel open. She glared at Avenger even harder. If _this_ was how much energy the Servant of the Vengeance needed to defeat another Servant, then Bazett would die before winning the war.

[...]

Misaya stared at her left hand as a red spear-like sigil slowly faded away. She stared and stared but she knew it would not come back; she knew what this represented and what the answer to her question was.

"You idiot..." she grumbled. Slowly she reached into her pockets and pulls out a coin to flip it, the small object clacked onto the ground with tail facing the surface.

She closed her eyes as images came into view. His past, his life, the things he did, the things he fought for, the people he protected, the enemies he defeats; dreams and images that Misaya had seen when she had slept in bed on the first night of the war.

"...Why are you so self-sacrificing...?"

A scene of black and red. Servants corrupted by something. Weapons collided, bodies pierced and stabbed, cut and slashed; death, death, death, and more death all around. The body tired yet the grips on his spear only tightened in determination. It came suddenly, a fatal stab from behind going through the heart, yet he struck back piercing his own lung to reach and kill the phantom attacker behind him.

His life flickered before him, he could hear voices calling for his name, he knew that he would not see the end of his fight and so he chose to pave the way for victory. He brought out his greatest weapon and he roared. Broken and tattered, beaten and dying, he crawled and crawled until he was besides _her_ feet. He didn't bother apologizing, he had no regrets, instead he said simply said goodbye.

Misaya stared her Command Seal, it's final segment shined softly in the dark.

"You big idiot... Don't you dare try to crawl back to me, I won't forgive if you do."

The red symbol lit up...

"That's why... at least go out with a bang, you flashy hero."

...and vanished.

[...]

A loud laughter filled the air.

Avenger spun around and eyed her somehow still living opponent. Lancer had lost his entire right arm and almost all of his right leg, the Servant kneeled on the ground, held up only by a single spear. She assumed she had completely annihilated him but apparently that wasn't the case.

"I guess people _are_ wrong; death doesn't cure idiocy after all," Lancer strongly stated in amusement as he readied the spear in his lowered position, "...I'm proof of that."

"How troublesome, you have Battle-Continuation," Avenger commented, "You were a really persistent person when you alive, weren't you Lancer?"

"I'm as persistent as they come," he grinned, as he angled the spear.

She eyed the splendid weapon wearily, she personally knew what it could do. She held up her Noble Phantasm, the black sword called Judgment, and idly wonder if she could endure the surely coming attack.

Lancer wanted to take them both out; a dual-death. He could still accomplish that despite his broken state.

"Brahmastra..." The bronze-like spear_ ignited_ in Lancer's hand. "Kundala!"

Avenger gathered strength into her weapon, using her own prana instead of _borrowing_ from Bazett, and swung, "JUDGMENT!"

Cleansing fire met unholy evils.

[...]

A gust of wind swept through the roads and a mighty explosion howled throughout the night.

Quietly, Misaya picked up the coin off the floor.

"...Lancer, you lug-head, it's not cool to leave a girl alone."

The raven-haired girl looked up into the sky and saw not a cloud in the night sky.

"I wish it would rain..." she mumbled to herself as drops streaked down her flushed cheeks.

* * *

**Author Notes**

Gah! This chapter really took awhile because I kept jumping from one story to another... Anyways, I worked on this in bits-and-pieces, so it might come out narratively weird since I didn't write out all at once... It's a tad shorter than the other three main chapters (this is 6k) but 10k words is rather unusual for me; also, a small thanks to _FanFicReader712012_ for reminding me that I had enough life-force to squeeze into working on this chapter.

And, of course, I still don't have an update schedule for Fate Shirou.

Eh, so let's see, here we are at the fourth chapter when I suddenly switch to Japanese honorifics. It totally makes sense! Totally! So why don't I just switch the previous chapters? Because Taiga's declaration in the Tiger Dojo wouldn't make sense otherwise. In other words, retcon has happened; like magic!

I've also suddenly switched to past-tense narrative because it's more comfortable to write in.

And, well, for other questions, concerns, or comments, those will be addressed in the next Tiger Dojo... whenever that will be.

_[Uploaded on 1/31/2013] [Lancer vs Avenger extended slightly on 2/12/2013]_


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